National Defence committee  Well, that's good to hear.

National Defence committee  Monsieur le président, you probably have to get the commander of the air force to come back to address the issue specifically, but what we have done in the last number of years is move towards partnerships with private companies through an open and transparent decision-making process about who those companies would be.

National Defence committee  Thank you. First, on the investment piece, I agree totally. But if you take a look at investment in personnel, the Canadian Forces is probably at the top of the list when it comes to what we do for folks, if investment means training and education, compensation benefits and the like, and providing challenging opportunities in work.

National Defence committee  Check--plus you need to add a couple of pieces, too, in that the process is open and transparent. I don't go and hire this person or that person. It actually gets posted for 30 days. We can't find folks any more. Reservists are being used across the country to a great degree. That has to be added, I would say.

National Defence committee  It is quite simple, Mr. Chair. We have three different categories of reservist: class A, class B, and class C. Class B is what we all talk about as the part-time reservist. They show up twice a week, they work in their—

National Defence committee  Once again, I apologize for the figures. I made the mistake.

National Defence committee  Yes, class A; sorry. So the class As show up once or twice a week and they work in their local armouries, as probably your son does, and actually receive some money and are ready to go, if called out. Right now the focus is more on the Canada First defence strategy. At the same time, if the Canadian Forces is short for whatever reason, operational deployments and the like, of personnel across its system, it can then go out and ask reservists in Canada if they'd like to step up and actually work full time.

National Defence committee  Are you charging him rent now?

National Defence committee  First, I apologize about the figures, I am responsible. I know that there is a difference between the two versions but we will send you the right figures. It's my fault. That rests with me. I apologize, and I will ensure the right ones actually get back to you.

National Defence committee  I will get back to you on which one is correct and which one isn't. Second, to come back to les cadets, that falls under the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff.

National Defence committee  No, le program avec les cadets falls under the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff. You'll want to pose him the questions. I could answer questions about the program, but that would only be my view. He actually runs the program. He is responsible for the Cadet Program. You referenced double-dipping.

National Defence committee  The short answer is, yes, they do. Actually, they ensure that those licences are maintained throughout, and they do have to be licensed. The challenge of finding not only a doctor but a dentist for military families is an issue we're looking at right now. There is a lot of focus and a lot of work being done on looking at our family program in six areas.

National Defence committee  To get back to your question--it's a great question--here's what we did at RMC. Last year we opened up a program called the ALOY program. That allows 25 aboriginal youths to come into RMC, not to be at RMC to do university but to get prepped for university if they need additional training.

National Defence committee  We don't have the answer to that question here, but we'll get it for you. The issue of Petawawa is probably a question you need to pose to the commander of the army, but we can give you the Canadian Forces' overall view. If I could elaborate, the view within the department is that Canadian Forces is first of all a defence team.

National Defence committee  I'll let Commodore MacKeigan start off by telling you what they're doing on diversity on the west coast, in particular, to give you some hard examples.