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Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to Minister Lametti and to Chairperson MacLauchlan.

I'm following up on the questions of my colleague, Mr. Fortin, and other colleagues. I would like to ask each of you to confirm whether you or anyone on your behalf or part of your committee consulted, not just Liberalist, but anything as to the political affiliations of the candidates you vetted.

Thank you.

I think a lot of us in the legal profession have a great deal of respect for Justice Moldaver and are sorry to see him go. He was both learned and congenial in the way he approached his important position. It has been mentioned before that he was a leading specialist in criminal law, and although mental health absolutely is an aspect of criminal law, my understanding is that criminal cases constituted 55% of the cases that the Supreme Court of Canada heard in 2021.

Given the importance of criminal law in the court, I'm interested, Minister Lametti, on how this gap of knowledge and skill set with Justice Moldaver's retirement was taken into consideration in appointing a nominee.

With respect, Mr. Chair, we only have so much time. We don't need to go over the past justice's credentials. I've already acknowledged—

All right. Thank you.

Am I correct, Minister Lametti—

Thank you.

I thought you were going to give me that extra minute.

Minister, thank you for being here.

You mentioned in your remarks that in the months to come there would be announcements about “new funding opportunities”, including on continental defence and modernizing NORAD.

I'm just wondering if you could clarify for me what you mean by “new funding opportunities”. Are these already included in the estimates we are talking about today, or are you saying that you're going to be asking for further funding? If so, in what amount?

Minister, you and the minister of procurement have said that you're still negotiating the sale of F-35s, but as a member of the consortium, Canada gets the F-35 at the same price as the U.S. in the year of purchase. We understand that Saab was debriefed on the F-35 competition last Friday, so why the continuing talk about a competition and process?

We can deal with that later. While you're here, I'd like to make use of the time with you, if I may.

Can you confirm that Canada is purchasing a block of F-35s from the scrapped Turkish purchase of Block 3 aircraft while the latest model of the Block 4 is unavailable, Minister?

All right. That's not an answer, but....

Will you confirm that the maintenance and sustainment work on our F-35s will be done in the U.S. because Lockheed Martin controls the intellectual property of the aircraft?

I did ask during committee of the whole and didn't get answers.

Right now CAE does Canada's military pilot training. Do you support CAE and training pilots at home by a Canadian company?

I'll ask questions of the deputy minister later. Thank you.

I am advised that the future aircrew training program has been weighted for either an Italian or a British company to win and to train pilots outside of Canada. The question is whether the government is prepared to lose all those Canadian jobs at CAE and its partners to training Canadian pilots in Europe. Are you aware of the issue, Minister?

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you all for being here today. I'll go to Deputy Minister Matthews, as the minister referred this question to you.

Is the government prepared to lose all the Canadian jobs at CAE and its partners to have our Canadian pilots trained in Europe, in places such as Italy and Britain?

Continue to be run by whom?