It's a tough question. It's one of the key things that we hear from the chief of the defence staff right now when he takes these matters to the public.
The Canadian Armed Forces is a limited instrument. As you keep pulling back on domestic security issues and domestic operations, you don't necessarily have the capacity to do external work with our allies. It's a very tough balancing act. There is a variety of ways forward. There are talks of creating a civilian force or using the reserve force in a way that's a little bit different from the regular forces for domestic operations.
We usually talk of the whole of government when we look at all of Ottawa. We call that whole of government. I want to take it to the next level. We need whole of government pan-Canada style where we go in and bring the provinces and the mayors to have this conversation on how we create a much more resilient Canada so when Fiona hits, you don't have someone going out there saying they need a thousand troops without necessarily explaining what exactly those troops are going to be used for. It's more of a political message to make a demand for a thousand troops without having a list of requirements of what's that going to look like on the ground.
What we need is a local capacity. We need to pay for it. We need to find ways to transition resources from the federal and provincial levels to the cities so they can build infrastructure that is resilient and have local capacity. Funding groups...whether it's the Red Cross, or St. John Ambulance, or Team Rubicon, there are lot of organizations that can do much more work on these matters and help take a bit of the pressure off the Canadian Armed Forces. That's one way to look at it.
I hope that answers a little bit of your question.