Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair, given that some of the Afghans who were working with us were contracted through other nations or organizations, settling on a final number, in my view, is probably impossible.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Madam Chair, we started up a team in our strategic joint staff under General Prévost to help process all of these files. From there, we were able to validate the files and then make a referral from that perspective. For the exact details, I will turn it over to General Prévost to elaborate.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Madam Minister. I will say a few words about peacekeeping missions in the context of Afghanistan. I must admit that the situation in Afghanistan is too complex for a traditional peacekeeping mission, because we need the approval of all parties to carry out a mission like that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  On May 9, 2022, I sat before the Special Committee on Afghanistan and testified with some emotion about my pride in our personnel for what they had accomplished during that mission. I will continue in English, given all the technical terms. From our perspective, we had not had a sizable—or any—military force on the ground since 2014 when we withdrew from Afghanistan.

Government Operations committee  Procurement is the responsibility of my colleague, the deputy minister. I'll pass that to him.

Government Operations committee  I also have a member of CJOC sitting behind us here. Perhaps in the second session, if there are more detailed questions, we can refer the questions to him. Basically, over the term of these two contracts, there was assistance given to CJOC in developing a long-term human resources strategy that also helped to codify the terms of reference for each of the key positions, establishing clear roles and responsibilities for the headquarters.

Government Operations committee  I will say that, when something—

Government Operations committee  No, I don't, but when these companies work with our allies, we can garner that sort of expertise to help us out, ourselves.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I shook my head to indicate no.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, at that period of time, I was receiving much advice. That particular article was one of many opinions that were offered over that time frame. It is important to hear as many voices as possible. That's the reason why CPCC embarked on this widespread consultation to hear those voices.

National Defence committee  That speaks to the necessity of ensuring that we have the capabilities and the readiness to deal with an increasingly dangerous world.

National Defence committee  I think we need to take a look at our competitive advantage. We're going to be in an era of competition and confrontation, certainly for the rest of my career and probably for the rest of our lives. For Canada, given our position in the world, it would be unrealistic for us to go it alone.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you mentioned, I was in Ukraine last Thursday and Friday, and in Poland on Saturday and Sunday, so I'm not sure which time zone I'm in. I will say the engagements that I had were illuminating. I had the opportunity to sit down with my counterpart, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, for a number of hours to talk about future plans, equipping and challenges that they are facing.

National Defence committee  Again, independently.... Where would it be occurring? What would the breach be? What would it consist of? Would we need advance warning coming from offshore? There are many factors that would go into this question.

National Defence committee  As we went through the process of determining whether or not something would be shot down, time was moving fast. For that decision, as we look at the after-action review, we'll look at the communications aspect of this as well, to see what could be improved upon.