Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank our witnesses for being here. I read through report 3 from the AG's office. It is a condemnation of our military justice system. I have to say that when you look at all the recommendations here and the conclusions, it's disappointing. Then

Public Accounts committee  But there's no doubt that by having these delays, you're undermining your own rules and service codes, such as the code of service conduct, that are in place today. When you try to maintain good order and discipline, when you try to maintain that morale, how do you get that when

Public Accounts committee  Commodore, you mentioned that Bill C-77—and we'll have you at committee tomorrow as we start the study on it—will address some of the shortfalls we currently have in the National Defence Act. I'm glad that we are going to be addressing victims' rights to reflect what we already h

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hope the 10 seconds of birthday wishes aren't taken out of my time.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, I want to thank our witnesses from the Office of the Auditor General for being here and for the great work they do on behalf of Canadians and on behalf of us as parliamentarians in making sure that dollars and programs are fitting the mandate of the Governm

Public Accounts committee  Is the correct term actually “operational availability”, not a “capability gap”? You do talk about combat capability, which is different from operational availability.

Public Accounts committee  Right. In your opinion, as it's laid out in paragraph 32 of report 3, you actually write: “purchasing interim aircraft does not bring National Defence closer to consistently meeting the new operational requirement introduced in 2016.” That almost reads like a recommendation. Why

Public Accounts committee  It has been suggested to me earlier on in the study that the Auditor General was looking at actually making that recommendation of not going ahead with the purchase of an interim fighter fleet.

Public Accounts committee  Would the Office of the Auditor General be looking at potentially following up on the study as it relates to the purchase of an interim fighter fleet?

Public Accounts committee  You talk about the policy change that was introduced in 2016. When was the exact date that the new operational requirements were brought into place? Do you have that information offhand?

Public Accounts committee  You're saying it was December 2016. Do you feel that the combination of both—not enough pilots, technicians and aircrew, along with the change in operational requirements—is creating a crisis that wasn't necessary?

Public Accounts committee  Paragraph 52 in the conclusion says, “National Defence has not done enough, in part because of factors outside of its control.” Are the policy changes part of those factors outside of its control?

Public Accounts committee  Do you believe that National Defence and the Government of Canada don't need to spend $470 million to buy used, rusted-out, old Australian fighter jets?

Public Accounts committee  How much more time do I have?

Public Accounts committee  Let's drill down on the combat capability. Did the Office of the Auditor General actually fly down to look at the condition of the Australian F-18s?