Government Operations committee  Did you say, “wet and dry storage"?

Government Operations committee  That would be things such as ice and other aspects to bring the food within, which is my understanding at this stage. I don't have the other specific details. I apologize.

Government Operations committee  As you are highlighting, there are different costs depending on where we go. In many cases there are costs that we can control. In some cases there are costs that we cannot control. We're often found with only one caterer that's available that meets the standards we require and the health and safety requirements for those who are on board.

Government Operations committee  I don't have the answer for you as to who used or drank that coffee but, yes, we can bring the Tim Hortons onto the flight, specifically to your question. It was the flight crew who went and purchased that, the flight steward.

Government Operations committee  It was that—

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. On September 22, when I was here, what I stated was that I didn't know the detailed breakdown of the costs by meal. We did have the invoices at the time, and when you look at the invoices, you will see that some of them have breakdowns of the cost by meal and others just have an overall cost for catering with zero breakdown, so what I was trying to explain at the time was that it was difficult to provide an exact cost by meal and by location, so that information—

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. At that committee, we were asked to provide that information on notice, which we did provide last month, for the committee to review. It had been previously subject to an ATIP as well, as you mentioned.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Mr. Chair, I'll take that one. The reality is that, with global catering services right now, it's quite difficult, as I expressed last time on September 22, to get quotes in advance of these catering contracts. As one example, we flew the Prime Minister, many governor generals and former prime ministers for the Queen's funeral to London.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. In the intervening period since we met in September, we have looked at all the costs associated with catering specifically, to your question. There are five components that make up catering costs. I'll just go through them very quickly. The first one is the meal cost itself.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Some of the information was released as part of an access to information request, which was made available to those who requested the information. My role is to be as transparent as I can be to the committee about what I know at the time I am providing you with the information.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, good morning. My name is Lieutenant-General Eric Kenny, and I am the commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the chief of air force staff. As a senior air force officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, I am an adviser to the chief of the defence staff on matters regarding air and space military capabilities to meet Canada’s defence objectives.

National Defence committee  You speak of SpaceX, which is one component of the many commercial providers putting multiple satellites up that will benefit all Canadians and many members around the world. From my perspective, the ability to have redundancy and resiliency comes with increased capacity, whether that's through commercial industry, private partnerships or the military.

National Defence committee  We have a formal agreement, a memorandum of understanding, that formed a binational command, the only one in the world. It initially focused on aerospace warning and aerospace control and it expanded in the last decades to add maritime warning. I think that speaks to NORAD looking internally to see what we can do to expand to meet the future security environment if required, but we need to recognize that it's a binational command.

National Defence committee  NORAD's role is to provide aerospace warning and aerospace control. I think that speaks to the particular nature of this question when it comes to a continental defence perspective. With the over-the-horizon radars that will be developed as per the NORAD modernization, some of the space-based capabilities that we described earlier, the sustainment of the North Warning System and the upgrades that we're doing with our F-18s right now—the 36 F-18s as part of the Hornet extension project—and then the future fighter capability, we're developing the capabilities to better sense.

National Defence committee  As you describe, space is becoming more congested and more contested, and it's competitive. We need to realize that commercial industry is putting up satellites at a great rate and actually has the capacity to do that. We, as the military, should not be solely focused on doing only our own programs.