National Defence committee  That's an excellent question, because I think it has a significant impact on our company. For a small company, the joint strike fighter badge—crest of honour, if you will—has put us on the map in terms of aerospace and defence contractors. Attending the CANSEC show this year, which was held at Lansdowne, we visited the Lockheed Martin booth, where they brokered conversations and meetings with half a dozen potential clients for Handling Specialty.

National Defence committee  I don't think I would get near the pace. I'm a believer in myself and my people and our initiatives, and to take a page out of Apollo 13, “failure is not an option” for our small business. This is my third recession. We will survive. We will not lose people. So the spirit is there, but the question is at what pace?

National Defence committee  I can speak first. The supply chain on the joint strike fighter was extensive. The area we are in, in Grimsby and around the Great Lakes, has been very well known for the automotive industry and the supply chain to feed that industry. It has been damaged significantly by the impact of the losses to the auto industry and a lot of these firms have tried to diversify.

National Defence committee  No, I came to Ottawa.

National Defence committee  I think I can speak to that. I really respect the question very much. The unusual part of our story is that we gave birth to the joint strike fighter relationship in 2002-2003 out of our own sales and marketing initiatives. Then the J-35 arrived for us and became a very dominant part of our revenue stream.

National Defence committee  The short answer to your question is yes, our business has participated in numerous contractual bids that are directly related to the 100% IRB contractual condition. To elaborate on that, in actual fact it's one of our strongest initiatives at Handling Speciality. We don't build product that goes on an aircraft; we build big things that help people build big things.

National Defence committee  I believe that's a fair statement.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to come before the committee to tell you the story that has unfolded with Handling Specialty and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics under the F-35 program. In short, Handling Specialty is an engineering and manufacturing company. We are classified as what is called an SME--that's a small-to-medium enterprise--where our annualized revenue stream varies somewhere between $12 million and $17 million a year.