Thank you to the witnesses for their time today.
One of you said that we are all connected to service in some way. It was very nice of Scot Davidson to share the story of his grandfather.
I'm going to hold this up. That's my grandfather. Maybe he knew Scot's grandfather. He was also at Vimy Ridge. He was injured there. That was him when he was signing up freshly to the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry a long time ago.
He was lucky. He came home and he started a family and I was able to take my seat in Parliament to help to participate in the democracy that he and others gave so much to defend. It's a great privilege to be here with all of you.
Ms. Dromaguet, two years in a row now we've missed the Battle of the Atlantic gala. You'll remember the famous photograph of the survivors of the Battle of the Atlantic. We have that photograph each year and the group gets smaller every year. I'm just so terrified of going back from 2019 to 2022 when we'll be able to do it again and how much that group will have shrunk by then.
To all of you, thank you for the work you do to commemorate and remember the sacrifices that have happened, that have been made by Canadians over many years.
I want to bring it to memorials and physical monuments. I represent Halifax as the navy town so I'm going to go to the navy by way of example. Here in Point Pleasant Park we have the anchor of HMCS Bonaventure, the Bonnie. It is a monument to people who lost their lives in service during peacetime.
There are a lot of monuments like it around the country whose ownership is not quite clear. They suffer from vandalism, from age. In the case of the Bonaventure monument, it's shoreline erosion because it's right on the edge of the ocean. We recently were able to coordinate among DND, VAC and a local survivor's group of the HMCS Kootenay disaster whose shipmates' names are on that monument, and we were able to bring that monument back in time for the 60th anniversary of the Kootenay disaster. But it wasn't easy. It wasn't straightforward.
Using that as an example, I'm wondering if any of you might have some advice for us on how we can care for these many smaller monuments throughout our communities across the country that commemorate those who have fallen.
I'll start with Mr. McLellan, given your domestic mandate, but if others would share any wisdom, I would be very grateful.