National Defence committee  The navy, I think, led the decision making on the retirement of our aging classes of ships. We saw what our fixed-budget envelopes are. We saw the very aging infrastructure of those platforms that were built in another era with different damage control systems, engine configurations, and automation.

National Defence committee  They were very operational-minded decisions. There were no personnel issues. In fact, I've disappointed a lot of sailors. On Cyclones, all I'll say, ma'am, is that one is flying from the back of a Royal Canadian Navy ship now. We're thrilled with what we see. Things accelerate very quickly once you start working with the project and the live aircraft or the live ship, whether it's the modernization, whether it's the AOPS, or whether it's going to be the Cyclone.

National Defence committee  Yes, ma'am. We try to bridge any defects or deficiencies we come across with capabilities. The final answer—I think it's about using shared services—is that it has not impacted our relationships with allies. The Royal Canadian Navy wants to be a partner to enable shared services to execute their leadership of the information management and information technology domain, especially with the big unclassified networks.

National Defence committee  Sir, the navy is pretty proud of the fact that it has a long heritage operating in the north and leading the rest of government to solve Arctic problems. HMCS Labrador was a navy ship in 1954. It cruised the Northwest Passage, helped build the DEW line, and put Canada in the north in a particular period in time when sovereignty was in our highest demand, and there was a full-blown Cold War.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir. I am taking several million data points of information and resolving them down to about 2,000 ships on the sea, and then I give that shipping plot to NORAD. Do I know if somebody at the other end is looking at the shipping plot or do they actually wake up when there's an incident?

National Defence committee  Just for a way of a reference point, the sea days of the navy have not decreased, but sea days are only one measure of our readiness. I have reduced the number of major ship exercises down to two major ship exercises every year instead of three. But in doing that, I make the major multi-ship exercises better exercises.

National Defence committee  Oh, we're thrilled to death with the Halifax class modernization. It is moving very quickly toward full-up success in so many different ways. The capacities of new technology undoubtedly give you more capability than you had in older systems. The number of ships is a quality in its own right, and we will see the number of our ships repair fairly quickly with the delivery of a whole new class of ships called the arctic offshore patrol ships or the Harry DeWolf class.

National Defence committee  Well, there's the whole-of-government. There's the Canadian sovereignty piece—

National Defence committee  —that is at play.

National Defence committee  It helps populate the military picture—

National Defence committee  Yes, sir.

National Defence committee  Yes, sir.

National Defence committee  The reservists augment the regular force crew. There is no reserve navy or regular force navy. We have moved to a “one navy” model and a “one navy” motto. We used to have the Kingston class completely crewed by reservists. We're moving away from that model, because it's unsustainable.

National Defence committee  No, sir, we're actually trying to increase them. The reserves are managed in three different blocks: Class A, Class B, and Class C reserves. Class A reserves are the foundational element of the reserves; they are the majority of our reservists. These are the citizen-soldiers who parade once a week in their units; then they come to training events periodically throughout the year and they often gain summer employment as Class B reservists during the summer.

National Defence committee  Yes, we will take the military element of the overall picture and provide it to NORAD. NORAD is always vacuuming up the picture through the United States Navy, through the U.S. Coast Guard, and through an agency called MIFC LANT. We contribute to that continental picture. We certainly don't give away RCMP, CBSA, and Transport Canada confidential information.