Thank you, Chair. I appreciate your underscoring the importance of the issues.
I know this has not been a fun or comfortable meeting for you. It wasn't meant to be, but I also want you to know that it's not our goal to have these kinds of meetings. We are happiest when there are audit reports that show how everybody is complying with everything and that taxpayers' money is being spent exactly the way it should be. That's our goal.
Where things are not complying, our goal is to change behaviour so that the behaviour is in compliance and Canadians can know that their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent properly and being accounted for properly. That's our ultimate goal. It's not necessarily to bring in senior people and make their lives difficult, although as you can see, if you're not complying with the rules in the way you should, that's what's going to happen.
With a goal now to move forward—we've dealt with where we are and why we're here—let's look at going forward and getting things back on track and getting into a positive world.
With that, Chair, I'd like to suggest that we ask the department to provide the following pieces of information.
One is that the Department of National Defence will provide the committee with a report explaining how each of the milestones of the 2013 action plan were either met or not met. Two, the department will also provide the committee with detailed reasons for any of the—well, it's most of them—deadlines of the 2013 plan being extended into the future. Three, the department is to provide a clearer explanation of the terms used and is to make the two charts comparable for proper comparison.
Deputy, that's taking up directly on your offer, sir.
Four, the department will provide the committee with a further report regarding how well military inventory is managed in comparison to Canada by the following Canadian allies: one, the United States; two, the United Kingdom; and three, Australia.
I put that last one in, gentlemen, to be fair, because if we are facing challenges similar to those three allies, it will at least give us some tempering in knowing that this is not just screw-ups but a tough new way of accounting, and that everybody is in the same boat. By the same token, if they have some methods that are working better than ours, then we would hope that your report would reflect that and maybe make some suggestions about how we might better account for our spending.
This is really meant to put things in proper context, because I took you at your word when you said that everybody is struggling with this situation. Fair enough; show us. Show us that this is not unique to Canada, and that will provide you with a little more compassion, shall I say, for lack of a better word, from us as we go forward.
Chair, I think if you seek it from colleagues, you'll find that there is support for these four measures.
I want to emphasize again how much we appreciate your coming in. These are difficult matters, but when I spoke to you about the pride in your professionalism that I felt as a Canadian delegate to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, that professionalism also includes not only what we do in theatre but how well we account for the taxpayer money that pays for those things. I appreciate that you understand that and I appreciate that you came here with an intent to answer our questions. I believe that ultimately, collectively, we will get this in hand; it's just going to take us a bit to get there.
The last thing I would say is that I really hope the report we receive is sufficient and that we don't need to have you come back in, because if that's the case, this meeting will probably look like the fun one. Again, on a positive note, I think you understand our concerns, and I will be shocked if that report doesn't address them. It will be very honest in its evaluation. Even if it has to be a little self-critical, now is the time to get back out in front. I have every faith that you'll provide us with the kind of report that allow all of us to feel good about moving forward and hitting the goals that our Auditor General has set for us all.