Thank you very much, Mr. Christopherson.
That is certainly a point of order and it is something that we do take fairly seriously.
We appreciate, Mr. Jones, that you've appeared before other committees and we know that you are very capable in this, but the buck does stop somewhere.
As Mr. Christopherson has rightly pointed out, in the department, the deputy minister and the minister are responsible. As Mr. Christopherson also said, there are times—and I don't think this is an example of where this is happening more than once—when deputies will send associates in their place.
I agree. Because of the lateness in the year, into June, with only a week or two left, we wanted this meeting, but we will be a little more upfront and clear that we expect the deputy to be here. We will try to accommodate them. If he or she was unable to be here today, then it becomes on us to find a date when he or she can be accommodated. We do thank you for being here and we know that we're going to have a good meeting.
We'll have an opening statement by our Auditor General, a brief statement from Mr. Jones, the senior associate deputy minister of DND, and then Mr. Hainse, commander of the Canadian Army department.
We'll first go to Mr. Ferguson, please.