Chair, thank you.
I will make four brief points in order to leave time for my colleague Lieutenant-General Hainse to make his remarks.
Point one, Chair, I certainly want to thank you and the members of the standing committee for inviting us to discuss chapter 5 of the Auditor General's spring 2016 report on the Canadian army reserve.
Point two, I do apologize on behalf of the deputy minister who was unable to make it today. I hear the concern of members, and I will certainly make him aware of it. Again, I do apologize on his behalf.
Point three, I'd like to stress that the Department of National Defence respects, appreciates, and thanks the Auditor General, the Office of the Auditor General, and Mr. Stock, for the good and important work they do on a number of issues, including this particular audit.
Point four, I want to assure members of the committee that we have taken the recommendations of the Auditor General very seriously, and work is under way to address these issues.
With that, Chair, I will just remind members that I think we passed out an action plan to all members as to how we're working on dealing with the recommendations.
I will turn it over to Lieutenant-General Hainse, who will provide more detail on what we're doing and how we're doing it.