National Defence committee  There are a couple of things, and I'll let Ferry get in on this, too, obviously with the Russian stuff. I do not think there is a military threat to the Arctic, even though there are natural resources there. There might be points of friction, but I don't think there is a milita

National Defence committee  I can give you two concrete examples. This year, the number of flying hours for F-18 planes is being limited. I forget the exact number, but it is about 6,000 or 7,000 hours per plane. Since there is no specific date for the purchase of the new generation of fighters, we are try

National Defence committee  Tell us what you want.

National Defence committee  As Mr. Harris said, perhaps next time.

National Defence committee  I have one thing on that, and I'll let Ferry, obviously, go on this one. When you were talking about security and whether we should be doing peacemaking, peace-building, or whatever the case might be, one of the no-fail missions for the Government of Canada and for the Canadian

National Defence committee  I think the Parliamentary Budget Officer has talked about that as well. We did mention that as you delay an acquisition, you lose $200 to $250 million of purchasing power. You just cannot avoid those inflationary pressures, so even though you might have given in 2006—let's just p

National Defence committee  You know the events of last month in the south Pacific with HMCS Protecteur and the fire. It is a single-hulled ship—and we've known this for a very long time; that ship is older than some of you—so it can't go into half of the harbours in the world because it doesn't meet MARPO

National Defence committee  At its most base level, I think no one can dispute the fact that al-Qaeda, which clearly launched the attacks of 9/11 and schemed a number of other attacks afterwards, has been, if not decisively defeated, certainly spread out, and is now on the run. It has morphed into a differe

National Defence committee  It's funny. Every time I travel in the States, I always have to tell people that the person who was on duty on 9/11 and triggered the evacuation of North American airspace was a Canadian, and that Canadian fighters routinely will go across the border, as we permit U.S. fighters t

National Defence committee  First of all, to correct a misimpression, right now we are spending less than we did in 2008. We're spending less right now since the inception of the CFDS. We're down to about $17.1 billion, and we were spending somewhere around $17.4 billion to $17.6 billion at the start of CFD

National Defence committee  You mentioned particularly some of the Baltic states and some of the cybersecurity issues. What became a problem at that time was whether that was considered an attack on the state. In NATO, during that particular time, there was an enormous discussion on whether that constituted

National Defence committee  If I could add, that's also an example of leadership. You can look at it in their reactions. I wonder whether Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan would have responded in the same way. We're sitting here debating whether we put sanctions on 21 oligarchs in order to put pressure on

National Defence committee  Thank you. I'll follow through with a couple of points. Ferry didn't go to Club Meds; neither did I. I did tours in Cypress and Bosnia in NATO and made several trips into Afghanistan over the last decade, as well as dealing with a number of business interests, particularly in S

National Defence committee  I guess we're running short on time, but specifically on weaknesses from a Canadian standpoint, I think we're losing our regional expertise. I don't think that either in Foreign Affairs or the military we are tapped into the undercurrents going on in areas that should interest us

National Defence committee  I'd also add that we aren't here to interpret the parliamentary motion or what that means. What we were describing to you is what is going to be on the agenda at the Chicago summit. It is inconceivable for anyone to say to any of you that NATO and other allies will not ask Canada