National Defence committee  No, it doesn't. Basically what I was saying was that this was a great program to be part of. It benefited National Defence in many ways, and there were other benefits. We were learning a great deal about autonomic logistics, about composite frames, about the ways you can manufacture and develop things better, have the better systems.

National Defence committee  Correct. Five and a half.

National Defence committee  Correct.

National Defence committee  I have no idea what happened in that brief period of time. I wasn't there.

National Defence committee  The only thing I could envision is the minister would call me into his office and say he wanted to sole-source these things. I'd say there was no need, that wasn't the intent, we have no reason or rationale to do it. He'd say he wanted to do it anyway. I'd say if he wanted to do it anyway I couldn't stop him.

National Defence committee  To answer your latter question, obviously we entered the program. Pierre Lagueux, my predecessor, was smart enough to get us into this, I think in 1997. We signed on for the second phase in 2002, none of which as far as I was concerned had anything to do with our buying the plane.

National Defence committee  No.

National Defence committee  Yes, absolutely.

National Defence committee  No, no.

National Defence committee  No, I signed the 2002 memorandum of understanding, and the Deputy Minister, Ward Elcock, signed the documents on December 11, 2006.

National Defence committee  Absolutely not.

National Defence committee  Absolutely not. Let me talk about section 7, in particular, sections 7.3 and 7.4, which are the two dominant ones. When you sign this agreement you sign it because the drafters weren't stupid, and it certainly makes it easier for our Canadian industry.

National Defence committee  For the companies that are in this program today, and we've achieved up to 85 now, for sure, absolutely you want this program to continue. There is no guarantee, but basically what section 7.3 says is that if you signed the 2006 MOU, which we did, tick; and if you have a contract and you're still continuing to produce the good for which you were contracted in the best value mode, tick; and if you agreed to buy these jets, question mark at the moment, then normally, not always, but normally, you would be entitled to continue to produce this good for the full production numbers of aircraft, the thousands that are coming down the road.

National Defence committee  Next time.

National Defence committee  Thank you. First, the reason I didn't mention all my points was that the clerk gave me only 10 minutes. So I had to eliminate a few points.