Government Operations committee  No, I'm not. I'm not—

Government Operations committee  Into the infrastructure of the yard, into the projects themselves, to actually advance work on the project, so we created a—

Government Operations committee  They are getting money to work on the projects. They are getting money—

Government Operations committee  No, they are supposed to get money to build the ships in advance—

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for the question. There are a number of things we now do. For example, for all of our large projects, we collocate all of the people, so PSPC, National Defence, ISED. They are collocated, working together to make sure they have a common view that's put forwar

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. You're correct. In the context of the medium support vehicle system project, there was a request for proposal that had to be cancelled just prior to closing. It became an interpretation of the authorities in place and whether or not, in our estimation

Government Operations committee  I can't speak for the government in the context of the information we're providing. We are continuing to provide information across the whole spectrum, looking at the government contracting regulations, everything that's possible. At this point, no decision has been made.

Government Operations committee  The process we go through in looking at requirements is that my colleagues at PSPC and I receive these after the decisions are made, after the military has established the requirements. Then they're looked at under the government contracting regulations to see what applies. That

Government Operations committee  Any information that talks about decisions having been made is speculative, and we're not there yet. We're still working through the information. At this point, our minister and his colleagues have not directed us in any way. We're continuing to pull information together on vario

Government Operations committee  Again, I can't speak for the government, but I will perhaps just address the payment issue. The payment is made for the U.S. fiscal year. Typically, we make it in early May. We have not made it this year as of yet. Some years we have made it early, well beforehand, and some year

Government Operations committee  It is, in fact, the latter. It does not guarantee industrial benefits to Canada. To date, though, I would say that through our investments of approximately $300 million, the industrial benefits that have accrued to Canadian industry are in the vicinity of $800 million. Canada has

Government Operations committee  I am sorry to say that it depends. In this particular case, as it turns out, had we negotiated.... Understand that this is often perceived as a U.S. program. It is not. We have others like it, such as the Seasparrow missiles, which is an international program with many countries

Government Operations committee  What we will do is industry engagement, and there will also be an involvement of industry coming forward. We tend not to go out and say, “We will consider only the following products.” We look to industry and international providers to come forward and indicate their interest. It

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for the question. As per our minister's mandate letter, we are looking at all options for the replacement of the fighter aircraft. Right now, no decisions have been made. The full spectrum is being looked at. Our minister has asked us many questions, about ap

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. I would add that this applies to all vessels—to every project. It's different from contracts awarded on a project-by-project basis, which don't allow us to be proactive in terms of design.