National Defence committee  I'm astounded by that.

National Defence committee  I can't afford to be biased; it's not defensible. Industry Canada, Public Works, Treasury Board--they play a pretty aggressive challenge function. They have their own particular mandate and responsibilities and they take those seriously. But the requirement needs to be stated by

National Defence committee  Only if those simulations are done, for example, by our defence and research and development community. By that, I mean professional scientists and those with Ph.D.s, who have no interest, frankly, in whether product A or product B is better or worse. But we are asking very speci

National Defence committee  My sense would be that if you evaluate the contenders for the essential characteristics we need for protection, survivability, affordability, etc., in the future for 30, 40 years, you're going to come back to probably one solution, which is the F-35, and you're faced with a situa

National Defence committee  Yes, sir.

National Defence committee  The information on the available aircraft is a job for professionals who know what they're talking about, but it also entails access to highly classified information, which we have access to through our allies. In terms of the joint strike fighter, we have full access to our memb

National Defence committee  Sir, it's absolutely normal. In fact, the classified portions are not of our choosing; that is, U.S. government technology and participation entails that classification. Bidders and many of our contracts have to come with the appropriate security clearances before they're given t

National Defence committee  I'm not current, sir, with the situation today with Bombardier. I would agree that the complexity and difficulty of this program is at a level that no one has ever seen in the world, and to produce three different variants.... Is it only Lockheed Martin that could do it? I'm no

National Defence committee  Sir, all they're saying is that your cost of withdrawing would never be more than 100% of your agreed contribution. But that's normal in contractual agreements.

National Defence committee  No, because the $550 million will already been spent.

National Defence committee  Yes, but it will be finished in 40 years.

National Defence committee  Right now, we have paid out $168 million.

National Defence committee  It's not a question of contracts. It's just the contribution we have agreed to pay annually. It's the sum of the initial $10 million, the $150 million, and then a portion of the latest MOU.

National Defence committee  Absolutely.

National Defence committee  Yes, we paid $168 million and we already have contracts for a total of $850 million.