National Defence Committee on Nov. 8th, 2006

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Is it fair to say, looking at this as a coalition of 36 countries, and Afghanistan being a much larger country than the area we're operating in, that the mission in the entire country, across the entire coalition, is in fact balanced between security, reconstruction, and governance?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

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.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I'm going to lead you with the question, but is it an oversimplification to say we have so many people doing this and so much money doing that, and just take that proportion of people and money and say we must be doing the same proportion of security versus reconstruction versus governance? A dollar in one or a person in one can make a much bigger impact or less impact than the same thing—

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

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.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Yes, but you can't say that if we put a third of the people in security, a third in reconstruction, and a third in governance, we'd be in a balanced mission.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

We'll have to come back to that question. Your time is up, but thanks for that.

Mr. Cannis will end the second round.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

General, I also want to echo what you said, that since 2001 we've made tremendous—I'll use the word “tremendous”—progress, given what was and what is today. There's no question about that.

Aside from terrorism, one of the main issues that the international community went into Afghanistan to address was the poppy growing situation. As has been well documented, we know very well that is pretty well their main, if not their only, source of revenue. Has there been any effort to address this problem?

On that issue, which I believe my colleague Cheryl Gallant was referring to, other countries have commented that they could look at the poppy growth and take that product and apply it towards medical research. This will alleviate part of why these people and these farmers need to grow this crop.

Are you aware of any initiative under way to address this problem? If we cut their funds, this will address part of the problem we're trying to solve in Afghanistan. Are you aware of anything happening in this area?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

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

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay, I understand.

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

From the Government of Canada's perspective, there is support for the counter-narcotics strategy, the Afghan strategy. As citizens of the international community, we're working collectively with partners.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

But we do know, and I'm sure you're well aware, that this is one of the areas that at some point in time needs to be addressed from a professional point of view, from—

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

The narcotics challenge?

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Yes.

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

Absolutely.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Great.

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

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

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

If I may close with this, I haven't been there, but God willing, some day I will have the opportunity to visit. When we're putting up these infrastructures, is there any Canadian identity, a Canadian flag, a Canadian symbol, that, hey, this is—

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Blankets.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Blankets, whatever. Is there anything like that? I've never been there; I don't know. Other colleagues might have been. Is there anything like that there?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

There certainly will be.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Okay, “will be”. Good.

Mr. Chairman, that's it for me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

You still have a couple of minutes.

Does anybody want to fill in?

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Nothing.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

I'll do this, and then we'll give the next one to Dawn, if the committee is willing.

I've been getting conflicting information on whether every soldier who comes back from the theatre is tested for post-traumatic stress disorder. Whether or not they have signs or symptoms, or whether they say, “I'm okay”, is every single returning soldier screened?

[LGen J.C.M. Gauthier]

That depends on what you mean by tested and screened.