Mr. Chair, the minister talks about reducing the gap, but again, the evidence is that the president of Irving says the gap is growing. We are seeing the gap is growing because the government is violating the procurement minister's own rules, who was saying only designs from ships already in service or mature existing designs will be accepted. Now the government is accepting designs and delaying the process to accept designs that violate the procurement minister's own words.
Will the Minister of National Defence please tell us what the size of the gap is, how many months, please, and when will we start working on the combat ships?