Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I think he just said I was older than him. The program has been evolving over the 10-year period. The individual decisions have all taken between a year and 18 months for us to come to a determination and get approval to proceed. Nothing has been done qu

Public Accounts committee  The budget for the surface combatant does have contingency in it for delays and other costs—that is absolutely true. There is a separate budget for the maintenance, repair and ongoing operation of the Halifax class vessels.

Public Accounts committee  It's all within the budget that currently exists. It's not negotiated with the shipyard per se. Certainly, we all want the new ships in the water as quickly as possible. The navy needs new capacity, and we would rather be in new ships than old ships, but no, there is no particula

Public Accounts committee  There's a difference between slight delays and “way off the rails”, Madam Chair. We would certainly be managing the project at that stage much more tightly than an eight-year delay on the last ship, as an example.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that question would be best answered by the commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Public Accounts committee  How about I ask the Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy to speak quickly about the operational challenges and how he's mitigating them?

Public Accounts committee  That's a very complex question to answer and to provide you with a number on off the top of my head. I think it's best that we provide that in writing, Madam Chair.

Public Accounts committee  You do. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have done some estimating and, again, accuracy matters, so we will provide that in writing in terms of the Halifax class as we await the surface combatant. The interim measure that's being used to offset as we wait for the joint support ships

Public Accounts committee  Certainly at this time we have our Arctic and offshore patrol ship project under way, and the joint support ship under way. Those are in construction phases. We have two of the AOPS in the water; one is doing trials now with the navy, and working very well. The surface combatant

Public Accounts committee  I will defer to Troy Crosby to answer that question for you, as he is responsible directly for that budget input. Our budgeting process and our costing process for every project is the same, regardless of the size. For details on the specific project, the project cost for “Stro

Public Accounts committee  I'd be happy to give you a very detailed written answer on this, Madam Chair, if that would be useful. Our budget does not include, at the time that it was posted, the provincial tax. However, we're happy to provide in detail how we budget and what it's inclusive of. I think it's

Public Accounts committee  I'm going to ask my ADM of materiel to weigh in. We have a very robust budgeting and cost-estimating function here at national defence. They work with various models to build that in. We may have to get you the exact number and give that to you after the meeting, but I'll ask Tr

Public Accounts committee  Our costing is, as I said, based on models. We do not include tax. The PBO does, but the numbers have essentially been within a range of each other that I think is reasonable going into the design phase of the ship. The difference the last time had to do with the amount of conti

Public Accounts committee  I would just echo what Mr. Matthews has said. In our project budgeting, at the early stages, we account for some of this risk. Delays cost money, so there is a significant contingency attached to each project in the early days, and it's pegged down over the years as we know exac

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I would suggest that every country that is building ships at this complexity and has a program this large is struggling with many of the same issues we are. We are the third country, for example, to build the type 26 surface combatant. We are learning from the U.K.