National Defence committee  I touched on this, but let me make it explicit. Defence procurement is the single largest discretionary item in the federal budget. Generations of politicians have seen opportunity in this. Defence spending is not governed by international trade agreements or international foreig

National Defence committee  I'll take it first, very briefly. We have the longest coastline in the world. Coastal defence is therefore quite important. The new AOPS will have a top speed of only 17 knots. They're not particularly suited for the Atlantic Ocean in winter. We need to think about how we beef

National Defence committee  Absolutely, which is why I'm worried, if this procurement drags on, that compromises will be made and we'll end up with subpar vessels. That would be the worst. The final thing to say about surveillance is that RADARSAT is phenomenal technology. We built it for Canada's maritim

National Defence committee  Yes, and to some degree I'm playing the devil's advocate, because I think the question needs to be asked: should we have a submarine program? I think we either have a modern, highly capable submarine program or we stop this charade we have right now of pouring money into a hole a

National Defence committee  I actually disagree with that. You have two umbrella agreements, with Seaspan and Irving, and although not all the contracts are signed, those are pretty firm plans. So it's not a question about getting more money, it's about fulfilling those plans as quickly as possible, and doi

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. I'm very happy to be here with you. I will speak in English today because it's my first language. I'm going to keep it short by not talking about two possible subjects within this larger topic. I am not going to speak about submarines, although if you wi

National Defence committee  I'm also not going to talk at length about the flaws in the national shipbuilding strategy. There is no use crying over spilled milk. I don't want to spend any time looking at mistakes that were made, at least not in any detail, but I'm happy to talk about what I think is wrong w

National Defence committee  On missile defence, a decade ago I worked very closely with former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy on the issue of missile defence. There was a lot of concern expressed by many of the same voices you've heard today and in previous sessions about how the United States needed Canad

National Defence committee  One thing that hasn't been mentioned and needs to be mentioned, because it's a decision that will need to be made by this government in all likelihood, is how Canada's new Canadian surface combatants will be equipped. There will be a push from the navy to make them Aegis class an

National Defence committee  I think what the general was referring to is that the latest version of the F-16 has not yet experienced a catastrophic engine failure resulting in a crash, but the newest version of the F-16 has acquired relatively few hours so far. It's a bit like looking at the Saab Gripen tha

National Defence committee  I also have a personal interest in this, in that I have a 15-year-old son who wants to fly fighter jets. Certainly, the Canadian Arctic is extraordinarily large. It's 40% of the second-largest country on earth. We have very extensive maritime zones. We have, at the moment, twin-

National Defence committee  Look, if you're happy with what the CF-18 has done in the last 30 years—and I am—clearly it's suitable for the North American mission. In terms of the overseas mission, the decision that would need to be made is whether we want to be the tip of the spear on the first day of att

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. It's a great honour to be here. My comments are directed at all the members, but especially to the members of the new government, because you have some very difficult decisions to make. I'm going to start by providing just a bit of context. Let me preface t

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm going to defer on the climate science question because I don't want to mislead you. You should call an Arctic scientist, perhaps Louis Fortier from ArcticNet, to talk to you about this. On the issue of it being a tough sell, similar concerns were expressed back in the 1980s