National Defence committee  I'm convinced that the soft costs you're talking about are considered, but they're not part of the 2%. The 2%, at periodic summit meetings, is referred to—i.e., we say, “Yes, we'll try”, and then we look at it and how close we're coming to it. The soft costs are considered, but a

National Defence committee  We talk about the 2% issue at each meeting. Canada is not there yet, but, two meetings ago, our minister said that Canada is moving in that direction. The question is always knowing what is included in the 2%. Every country says that it will try to reach 2%, plus 20% in equipmen

National Defence committee  We have many parliamentarians in NATO who want us to do more, and we have many who say we're doing more than enough at this stage. We're looking for that balance. There is a lot of dialogue through our NATO PA Ukraine group. They're very active and very informed, and they bring

National Defence committee  No, I think it was a politically motivated decision not to participate in missile defence. As a result of that, the United States put missile defence outside of NORAD. We participate in NORAD as an equal. It's a very successful program. The vice-chair of NORAD is a Canadian, and

National Defence committee  We have already taken a number of trips to the Arctic and NATO is very involved, especially now that countries like China have decided that the Arctic is important. We have to be on top of what is going on and what they are doing. For that reason, I have made at least two trips

National Defence committee  Exactly.

National Defence committee  Do you want to take this discussion as to how we can communicate this on NATO's work?

National Defence committee  Our group here in Canada is involved in NATO communications, especially those aimed at young people. Leona Alleslev, as chair of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association, has worked in Brussels in the field of NATO communications. The current chair is from Italy and he has jus

National Defence committee  Our colleagues from Estonia explained to us how devastating a cyber-attack can be, because they're so heavily dependent on modern technology. It can just close everything down, from getting money out of bank machines to the lights. Everything stops. There is research on that. NAT

National Defence committee  Can we make it back to the Diefenbunker?

National Defence committee  Certain groups within the NATO Parliamentary Assembly have had an opportunity to visit China. China is moving ahead very rapidly with respect to rearmament and improved armament in a lot of different areas. How much they want to show others is always a question, but we know there

National Defence committee  Mr. Garrison, just to remind you, there is a political group within the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and there's a wide range of points of view expressed in there. We may not have a disarmament group, but we have a political group that discusses the issues you'd be looking for.

National Defence committee  It's an interesting field.

National Defence committee  The “unanimous” is an important part of that.

National Defence committee  We're not part of missile defence in North America, so what the U.S. is doing we can only surmise in part. I think it's hugely important that we change that.