National Defence committee  Sir, thank you for that question. In principle, since this past summer, when we ceased combat operations, Expeditionary Force Command's mission has been the retrograde of the transition operations. That has been the focal point of the present mission transition task force under General Lamarre.

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. For clarification, I can perhaps put in sequence what we did. At the time we were required to close Camp Mirage, we did so. Post that, of course, we had to continue conducting operations in support of the Afghan mission. I inferred that we had a hub in Spangdahlem that was there with a very modest capability.

National Defence committee  Moving to Kuwait from Cyprus—we did that in September. It's close. The simple principle is the less time in the air, the better my costs are in terms of shipping, and the quicker I can get things onboard a sea vessel.

National Defence committee  Correct.

National Defence committee  The figure I have used, and I think the minister has, when I discussed it with him, was in the order of just above $20 million. But again, we're at the closure time. There is an awful lot more...because we won't finish that operation until February. To be very candid, that figure I gave was probably about six months old at the initial planning, before we did anything.

National Defence committee  That is fuel savings. I can put a lot more on a ship, and it's cheaper to rent a sea ship versus flying everything in terms of distance.

National Defence committee  That's correct, sir.

National Defence committee  That's a simple question, sir. I don't know. I do believe, though, that question has been put before, and I believe it's under notice for consideration, so it's probably not appropriate for me to comment on costs at this time, sir.

National Defence committee  Sir, there were reduction costs, and, again, the government has indicated it will provide those. Again, those correct costs will be provided to—

National Defence committee  We would provide part of it, sir. At that time, Camp Mirage had been operating under the authority of CEFCOM. The air force was the primary force generator, and then we augmented that in terms of theatre activation. There were a number of different entities that would've been involved, or were involved, with respect to the closure of Camp Mirage.

National Defence committee  No, sir. There's an operating budget that is maintained by CEFCOM for operations, and we would put—

National Defence committee  I apologize, sir. The Canadian Forces Expeditionary Force Command, now commanded by General Beare, is ultimately responsible for, and has been responsible for, deployed operations internationally. They are the ones who, when there is an operation, provide the input in terms of budget, and they are the ones, of course, who would—as I require to do things in support of the operation, I would be requesting authority for certain values of money to—

National Defence committee  No, sir. As I tried to indicate, and if I wasn't clear—

National Defence committee  Correct. There is an operating budget that is requested by the department for the cost of operations. That is the budget we would draw against.

National Defence committee  Again, thanks for the question. I should know exactly today how many I have deployed. I'm afraid I don't know the exact number. I should clarify that Afghanistan, in the support concept, is the Expeditionary Force Command's mission. When we start to build an organizational structure, for instance—and we can talk a little bit later perhaps about the transition task force—the actual members of that come from force generation CF-wide.