National Defence committee  With NATO, sir, they are, absolutely. I would say almost continuously, but with NATO it may not always be under that body.

National Defence committee  In my opinion as a former naval officer, it does, sir, have a blue-water navy.

National Defence committee  Generally, to operate as a task group, having access to replenishment ships becomes a key part of it. It depends on where you operate as a blue-water navy. For Canada, for geographic reasons of the Atlantic and Pacific, particularly in the Pacific, having a mid-Pacific refueller

National Defence committee  We lost it domestically and organically. We didn't lose it in the context of NATO and allies, which we always participate with. We did some work, as I think you're aware, with some of our close allies, to have access to their AORs and did some very specific mutual logistic suppor

National Defence committee  I'll quote from Admiral Lloyd as the person responsible for this. Quoting from him, it's yes. I think he is the right authority to speak to it. Notwithstanding what I've described in terms of access to allies and others, they then have a decision. In this case it gives us a dom

National Defence committee  There are various projects within those yards. We have seen some delays in the first ones on each coast. The first AOPS was probably about six months behind, but the ship is almost done. The second and third are under way. We'll have four under way soon. There are some delays in

National Defence committee  It's something again that Canada is a leader on and continues to press. We have a long way to go, but in that context we have of course adopted the GBA+ approach to all our procurements in the things we do. We bring that into NATO as well. I will ask Jennifer for her experience

National Defence committee  We are doing more work, of course, with the Canadian delegation. Increasingly what we have done through the attaché network in recent years is we have bolstered—and again it's Jennifer's organization that does that—the training of military attachés who are going abroad and gettin

National Defence committee  I'm sorry, sir. I actually don't have those details. I think if it's something you want to get into, the force structure and—

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir, for the question. I think the way you describe the procurement process is absolutely correct. It applies to our largest and most complex projects. I have about 350 projects under management, with probably between 10,000 and 12,000 contracts, and what you just des

National Defence committee  In a similar fashion, again particularly in the context of technology, a lot of it is the NCIA, but the NSPA, where we work, has a fair bit of agility as an agency. It depends on what the members want to do. In a lot of the support areas they are actually quite agile. I don't k

National Defence committee  In the context of greening armed forces' aircraft, ships, and other things, such as by using alternate fuels, etc., the member states provide the greatest influence as the providers of all the equipment that would consume fuel. There are other initiatives—for example, smart defen

National Defence committee  Thank you very much for the question. We are in a growth phase in materiel procurement and support. Our resources are sufficient for the contracts we have right now. Since various projects are coming to an end, however, some of the staff assigned to them will be assigned to proj

National Defence committee  Once again, thank you for the question. As a NATO member, Canada participates in various ways. First, NATO itself is made up of 29 countries. There are also various committees. As I said earlier, I serve on a procurement committee. There are also agencies that are somewhat indep

National Defence committee  I have to say that my experience in that regard is limited. I can answer, however, based on my military career and in particular my involvement with the U.S. navy. The U.S defence budget and their level of investment in equipment inevitably creates a certain gap. We do, however,