Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I am glad we have time for one more question, because I have not received a single answer tonight in 15 minutes. I will try to get one answer. Who in DND was the architect, the person who imposed a lifelong muzzling of public servants involved in the sole-source purchase of the Super Hornets?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I am sorry to belabour the point. If the Minister of National Defence works so closely with the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, as he says, why can he not answer the simple question of whose decision it was to delay the process to allow BAE to add its unqualified design to the bidding process?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I think this is a capability gap, but I think it is the capability of the minister. The single biggest source of accrual space removed in budget 2017, $2 billion, was for the combat ships. How many more billions will be removed because of the ongoing delays with this procurement, please?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I will ask the question again, and please answer the question and stop pointing fingers at the past. How many more billions would be moved because of ongoing delays with this procurement process?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, how long is the gap going to be between the Arctic patrol vessels and the combat ships? Why is there a gap when the new procurement strategy that was announced was designed to prevent such a gap?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I would like to ask again, what would the gap be? Why is there a gap? The minister has stated that they are making it more efficient and making the gap smaller, but the president of Irving himself, who is building these ships, says the gap is growing larger and we are at risk of added costs or a massive layoff of skilled staff at Irving's shipyard because of the government's delay in moving forward with the design and the project.

Business of Supply  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.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, if the minister is working so closely with the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, why is he allowing the department to make so many last-minute amendments to the project?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, we have seen the government interfere in the process with the combat ships by allowing unqualified BAE to bid on the project. The RFP has now undergone 52 amendments, and counting. Why have there been so many amendments so close to the original RFP closing date?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, how many of these amendments are coming from DND and how many specifically from procurement?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, the U.K. Royal Navy has refused to consider the BAE T26 design, the same design for which the government is delaying the process to allow it to bid, costing taxpayers money and potential jobs. Was it DND's decision to delay the project to allow the T26 to be added, or was it the procurement department?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, it is the joint responsibility of the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Public Services and Procurement for this project. Can he please tell us if it was defence that delayed the project to allow the T26 design to be added, or did this come from procurement?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, regarding the CSC, our procurement minister has said that only designs from ships already in service or mature existing designs will be accepted, because it means there will be less risk and vessels can be built faster. Why has the government then delayed the project to allow BAE to add to its bid for a ship that only exists on paper?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I would like to ask the minister who is violating the procurement minister's rules on only accepting bids for existing ships or mature ships on design to delay the process to allow BAE to submit a bid for a project that only exists on paper.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I wish we could get an answer on that. I will skip over to the next one. The lobbying commissioner's website shows that BAE has lobbied the defence minister's office on at least four occasions. We did an access to information request, and the minister of defence's office has stated that it has never met with BAE or anyone connected with BAE regarding the CSC.