National Defence committee  I've been to Landstuhl and I've spoken to wounded soldiers in Landstuhl and I've spoken to parents of wounded soldiers while they were there in Landstuhl experiencing seeing their son in a shocking state to them. It's traumatic for the parents. I will tell you the parents and the wounded universally are positive about the support they are receiving, not just from Landstuhl but from the Canadian Forces and from the Government of Canada effectively.

National Defence committee  That's not just treatment.

National Defence committee  By “Canadian presence”, do you mean Canadian flags and physical, visible demonstrations?

National Defence committee  We are doing that. We do that every day. I won't get into all the details, but we have loaned equipment to other nations in Afghanistan. We supported at least one other nation with airlift in a very substantial way. We received support from other nations with respect to different kinds of airlift.

National Defence committee  I think every commander wants to put his stamp on a particular endeavour, whether it is in Afghanistan or training in Canada, or wherever it might be. I would not want to take that away from the individual. It is just as General Fraser did when he came in and put his personal stamp on the approach, but whether it is General Fraser or General Van Loon, they are working to a commander, COMISAF.

National Defence committee  Certainly. You can have that explained to you also in Edmonton.

National Defence committee  That depends on what you mean by tested and screened.

National Defence committee  My superficial answer would be yes, absolutely. Certainly each individual is screened. You can discuss the degree of rigour in that screening process with the Canadian Forces Surgeon General. We go through quite a process to make sure they are healthy, mentally and otherwise, before deployment and on their way back.

National Defence committee  All I can say on that issue, again, is that the minister and the CDS are both absolutely committed to making sure that soldiers are not disadvantaged by virtue of having been wounded in action in a theatre of operation. They're committed to that, and I'm sure the CDS has provided direction to the chief of military personnel and others to find a way to make sure that our soldiers are properly compensated.

National Defence committee  It would be very difficult for us to do that. In the near term, if we chose to do it, there's a requirement in Kandahar province: someone has to do this. Canada has signed up for this through to early 2009.

National Defence committee  I would say that even from a pure Canadian perspective, I don't agree with the assertion that the mission is unbalanced right now. If you look at the component parts of this joint task force compared with what we've deployed to Bosnia over a period of years, there is more reconstruction capability, there is more planning capability, there is more capacity-building capability than we've ever deployed on any mission in the past.

National Defence committee  Absolutely.

National Defence committee  There's no question that this is the key to the progress in Afghanistan.

National Defence committee  Yes, it's tough for me to agree with the conclusion that there's imbalance, but at the end of the day, the government will decide how it will spend its money. The reality is that to deploy a military contingent costs a lot of money.

National Defence committee  Sir, you're asking me to step way outside my lane to comment on that.