Government Operations committee  Thank you. I'm not a student of procurement or the organization of that procurement, so I don't believe I have the competence to answer that question properly.

Government Operations committee  My concern is, if we don't start the process of replacing these submarines in the next two or three years, it will be very challenging to negotiate the complexity of not just the defence procurement process, but also the industrial requirements to come up with a design that will

Government Operations committee  In terms of the absolute minimum just to conduct operations off the east and west coasts, six conventional boats would probably be sufficient. That would enable you to establish an operations cycle on either one. That would enable the continuous presence of a submarine able to de

Government Operations committee  It's a hypothetical threat.

Government Operations committee  Effectively, you would be ceding a certain level of sovereignty if you were to rely on American assets to patrol Canadian territory. That is the simple answer to that.

Government Operations committee  We do retain a certain fig leaf in the form of forward-operating locations for CF-18s and the ability to deploy in surge capability into the Arctic. We are heavily reliant on American assets; that is absolutely certain. Nevertheless, to completely rely on them, you're placing an

Government Operations committee  I think there is a diplomatic angle there that is troubling in the sense that Canada is outside of three of the Five Eyes that we normally co-operate with very closely. That is a troubling statement on, perhaps, the part of Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom abou

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. It goes back to your colleague's comment about the fact that we're surrounded by three oceans and our southern border is guarded by a superpower. Clearly, the maritime approaches of this country need to be guarded carefully. That might require a submarine that has a

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. We could stick to our own shores—

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. A submarine that's capable of only doing littoral operations by virtue of the fact it has a limited range could still perform a vital training function for task group operations on a global basis. One of the things, though, that would be very challenging would be to

Government Operations committee  I agree with what you say, yes. Even under the Biden administration, we've seen punitive trade policies that were started under the Trump administration continue. Certainly the political circumstances in the United States are very unsettled at the moment.

Government Operations committee  I think that explains why there is a lot of resistance to the notion of submarines, particularly because of the difficulty we've had in operationalizing them since 1998. I think that contributes to it as well.

Government Operations committee  Unfortunately, there's no simple solution to submarine procurement, because of the complexity of the weapons system. There are many different types of submarines available, both conventional and nuclear, but the options that are available from German, French or Spanish shipyards

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry. I did not receive any of the interpretation on that. Again, I really apologize.

Government Operations committee  I think that any capability that is primarily organized around offensive operations is controversial for most Canadians. Because we are surrounded by three oceans and our southern border is guarded by a superpower, most Canadians believe, in effect, that we live in a gated commun