Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, General, and Mr. Fonberg, I want to follow up a letter that was sent I think to the minister and to General Hillier recently from a constituent of mine. She copied me. I spoke to her yesterday.
Her husband is on HMCS Toronto, which is returning after a five-month deployment. She, with other families, received recently this announcement, indicating that the return to Halifax has been delayed by two days, until 1300 hours on Tuesday, December 18. The reason cited, among the reasons, was that “the ever-increasing cost of fuel requires us to travel at our most economical speed on the trip home”. She is very disappointed by that.
Minister, you and I and Mr. Cuzner are from Nova Scotia. This is a military community. I am proud to represent the people who serve in the CF and veterans. It may not seem like a big deal to some people, a two-day delay, but I'm sure you would agree that a two-day delay after being away for almost half a year, particularly around Christmas, is very important. The Sunday planned return date is easier for families as well in terms of children not being in school, getting time off from jobs, and things like that.
My question to you is, will you review that decision to see if the original schedule can be followed and make Christmas a little bit brighter for these families, who support our brave men and women in the forces?