Public Accounts committee  I think about four years and seven months, Mr. Chairman.

Public Accounts committee  It was 2007, I believe.

Public Accounts committee  I would have been the deputy minister at the time, yes, sir.

Public Accounts committee  I did, indeed.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, we tabled a fairly detailed management action plan—not this time but at that time—in response to that particular recommendation, and we are prepared to talk to the progress we've made in responding to that recommendation.

Public Accounts committee  Mr. Chairman, we actually tried to clarify with the Auditor General his comments about $25 billion in 2008-09. We never had such an estimate. So you'd have to speak to him about where that estimate actually came from. The fact of the matter—

Public Accounts committee  No. What I'm saying is that there was no $25 billion in a decision document in 2008, Mr. Chairman, as far as we can tell. You'd have to ask the Auditor General where that number actually came from. We spoke to his office and told him we would be clarifying that issue. If you'd like me to go on with regard to the $25 billion to $15 billion...if there's time; I don't know.

Public Accounts committee  To the absolute best of my knowledge, that's actually correct, Mr. Chairman.

Public Accounts committee  No, in.... I think, actually, that issue has been clarified, Mr. Chairman. Just to be clear, in 2008, when the Government of Canada approved the Canada First defence strategy, we included at that time—publicly, I believe—a $9 billion acquisition envelope. When the decision documents were prepared for cabinet in 2010, we sought $9 billion for acquisition, $5.7 billion for in-service support over 20 years, and we indicated that we expected that the operating costs of the aircraft over 20 years would be roughly the same as the CF-18 fleet, about—

Public Accounts committee  I would start by saying, Mr. Chairman, that the secretariat will address many of the concerns and gaps that the Auditor General identified in his report. I would turn to my colleague from Public Works, who will chair that committee, to spend a minute talking about some of the details and work plans of that secretariat.

Public Accounts committee  No, Mr. Chairman, we're working on the precise approach. We did agree with the Auditor General's recommendations on life-cycle costing. We are working with the Treasury Board and the Comptroller General on the precise methodology, which is work carried over from last year, and we thought we would be better to complete that work before we tabled the plan.

Public Accounts committee  My apologies, Mr. Chair.

Public Accounts committee  I can, Mr. Chairman. I will start by telling you that the department's work is based on a bottom-up approach that works through all of the information that's developed by the joint project office and the joint estimating team in Washington. It's very detailed work. My colleague can speak to that issue.

Public Accounts committee  I'm trying to balance between speed and—

Public Accounts committee  Would the member like me to dial this back at all? Do you want me to go back to something?