Public Accounts committee  It is more than possible.

Public Accounts committee  If I can just say quickly, Mr. Chairman, we're absolutely working on it. I want to make sure that we don't leave a sense that the time and the process are necessarily because things are sitting in somebody's in-basket. Time actually is important often to get the challenge functio

Public Accounts committee  With $490 billion over 20 years, just to clarify, roughly I believe half of that, a little bit less, probably, Mr. Chairman, is actually capital procurement. If you look at the Canada First defence strategy, the overall kind of objective of that, which includes the $490 billion,

Public Accounts committee  Just to finish, for a wide range of explicit commitments, the Canadian Forces are ready to go. We cannot do everything, but clearly we will be ready to do many things.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure I understand the question, Mr. Chairman. We have the Canada First defence strategy, which lays out a 20-year plan and $490 billion of proposed spending.

Public Accounts committee  Let me put an answer and clarify whether I've understood the question.

Public Accounts committee  I think it comes back to the point the general made, which was that something happened in the field. There was a decision made by the senior commanders working with the ADM Materiel that equipment was actually needed. It was needed more quickly than the actual project approval gu

Public Accounts committee  Let me turn to my two colleagues. General Leslie started with these requirements processes often beginning with a tragedy. Let me just ask him to connect directly with my ADM Materiel, who will explain...that works for you.

Public Accounts committee  Again, if the general sits down with his colleagues and decides there's a piece of equipment that will actually address or mitigate the risks we're facing in the field, and we ask him how quickly that gets into a discussion with ADM Materiel, how quickly the various options are i

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for those questions. Let me just quickly begin with Haiti, and the general may want to make a comment on this. It's a very different kind of operation. Arguably, we were stood in very good stead by virtue of the procurements that had been made earlier in the decade, pa

Public Accounts committee  Are you referring to the situation in Kandahar province?

Public Accounts committee  I probably could, but if I can, Mr. Chair, I'll pass it to my colleague, the lieutenant-general. He would probably give you a much more accurate sense of the situation we were confronting on the ground.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, I would like to see the blues to make sure they properly capture the opening comments, if that's possible.

Public Accounts committee  I have just a couple of points. Number one, our world changed a little bit in the fall of 2006 after Operation Medusa, which I think you've actually heard about. I think it was probably the biggest firefight and the largest loss of life we've had in 50 years, or something like th

Public Accounts committee  I would like to turn, if I could, to the assistant deputy minister of materiel, who's very familiar with the actual timelines. I do believe that the origins of the challenge were that based on the Leopard 1 model, as opposed to not exactly having done the research, and given the