National Defence committee  I would agree with you, Mr. Chair, that we need to take faster steps. Indeed, that has been happening over the last year. Changes to the requirements for applicants coming in with respect to the medical standard necessary are under way, so that people with allergies, asthma, ADHD and anxiety are no longer automatically unable to join based on a medical standard moving forward.

National Defence committee  Certainly, we always want to do what we can to reduce both the time and the process necessary to bring Canadians into the armed forces. In any recruiting process, and this certainly has been true historically, not everybody who applies will meet the standards necessary to join the Canadian Armed Forces and not everybody's interest necessarily stays the same.

National Defence committee  I would not be able to give you the exact numbers of pilots for each of the platforms that we have pilots for. We can certainly provide those numbers moving forward. One big challenge we have is that as we move from some platforms to others, a transition time is required. We have to train those crews to be able to operate on the new platforms, and that puts pressure—

National Defence committee  We still require more people in the same way that the Canadian Armed Forces is short of personnel. We are short of personnel within the air force.

National Defence committee  You are correct. It is a constant prioritization of where the demand is coming from for the Canadian Armed Forces' services. What is it the government would like us to do? What have we made commitments toward? How will we manage crises that arise and come forward? What tools are available to us to support that moving forward?

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly, I want to reinforce that any type of misconduct within the department is something that we take seriously, and there shouldn't be instances when members' complaints of inappropriate behaviour or conduct go ignored. As it pertains to Officer X, I can't tell you that I know about the specific ICCM report to which you refer.

National Defence committee  Mr. Chair, I can speak to that question. As part of the Indo-Pacific strategy, Canada agreed to increase its military presence in the region from a naval perspective by having three deployments into the region over every year moving forward. That is for us currently, with the Montréal to be followed by the Vancouver this summer and then the Ottawa later on this fall.

National Defence committee  No, Mr. Chair, Mr. Matthews has pretty much covered most issues. As the esteemed colleague said, we are there as a force of last resort when needed. Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces have always come when the call has come in a true crisis, as we have in the evacuations in the north as well.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much. I absolutely agree with you that readiness is critically important for your ability to execute on operations, and you must be ready to execute on operations. The mechanisms through which you get ready and are ready, I think, are different, depending upon the organization that you're part of, be it the air force or the army.

National Defence committee  You are correct. We have people sitting at different levels of readiness. As you come off of high readiness and you return to a lower state of readiness, that's a bit of a reconstitution time for people to do training, for equipment to be repaired and that sort of thing. The next group are on the road to high readiness while another group are sitting at high readiness moving forward.

National Defence committee  I'm afraid I couldn't tell you exactly the number of fighter pilots we have. We certainly do not have—

National Defence committee  Absolutely.

National Defence committee  I would say there are currently fewer fighter pilots available than the commander of the air force would wish to be able to do both the missions we have today and the training for the transition to the new F-35.

National Defence committee  I would not be able to give you the accurate number.

National Defence committee  You're 100% correct that the Canadian Armed Forces need to be prepared and ready to fight. That's the mission that we can do that others cannot within the environment. That being said, Canada has always turned to its Canadian Armed Forces in times of extraordinary crisis to be able to support domestically.