Thank you very much, and thanks so much to our witnesses.
This is obviously a focus right now among the public in general, because of the global climate we find ourselves in and announcements by the Prime Minister to be investing more in our national defence.
The elephant in the room is the cost. It's been brought up numerous times. The Auditor General's report notes that in 2022 we had a projected cost of $19 billion.
At that time, was that a reasonable estimate? I want to approach that question from the perspective of some things you've already mentioned, things that were outside the control of the department. When you're answering, keep in mind that there were extenuating factors that were not necessarily within our control. Should we have contemplated those types of risks when coming up with an estimate of this nature, and should we have baked in contingency...? Obviously the pandemic is once in a lifetime, but other stuff like global conflict, Russia.... Anybody probably could have foreseen that coming down the road.
Could you answer that question, contemplating that there may be risks that we should be estimating for?