Public Accounts committee  Werner, do you want to speak to that?

Public Accounts committee  Well, I think I would make a couple of points. It's a very good question. One, as we've indicated, we're going to always want to continue to improve our contracts for maintenance and support. There was a previous government policy on how to do this in 2006 or 2007. It gave us a l

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I'll ask Werner to answer.

Public Accounts committee  That's a completely understandable, good way to look at it. Now, that's for doing repair work on your piece of equipment. For us, to do life-cycle costs, it's not just the repair work. We do track repair costs, but when we get into the full life-cycle costs, it means the operati

Public Accounts committee  No, no, I understand.

Public Accounts committee  Just on the point of how long you do that will depend on the asset. On the surface combatants, when we do life-cycle costing, it's going to have to be 50-plus years, depending on how long we're going to use those ships.

Public Accounts committee  I'll say a few words and then I'll turn to Pat. All of these contracts predated how we are approaching it now. We locked in kind of a fixed level of support, then you pay the increment. A lot of that would have been to make sure that we have more than enough support so that, if

Public Accounts committee  That's exactly it.

Public Accounts committee  Yes. The Government of Canada has policy regarding sole-source contracts. Pat, do you want to add to this?

Public Accounts committee  I think that's a perfectly reasonable approach to take, and I would agree totally with it, both as a taxpayer and also as the deputy minister of the department. If I'm wasting money in one area, that means I have less money to spend on equipment or readiness or training for the a

Public Accounts committee  I think the big challenge for a lot of us on performance indicators is the data to support them. It's pretty easy to come up with great indicators. It's often very difficult to then find an inexpensive, efficient way to collect that data. The government has now given us a prett

Public Accounts committee  Yes, sir.

Public Accounts committee  That's right.

Public Accounts committee  The Treasury Board policies on costing have evolved, even last year, and actually they match exactly where we've gone and are heading and have invested this year. The 2014 plan did not include life-cycle costs for all of our equipment. Some of that costing didn't include sustainm

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for having me back to speak to you and the members of the committee on the Auditor General's report number 5, pertaining to National Defence. You will notice some new faces today. I would like to introduce Lieutenant-General Lamarre, who has just assumed h