National Defence Committee on Nov. 17th, 2011

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

That's a simple question, sir. I don't know.

I do believe, though, that question has been put before, and I believe it's under notice for consideration, so it's probably not appropriate for me to comment on costs at this time, sir.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

It's kind of curious that you answer that you don't know, since you're the head of CANCOM. I would've thought that you would be in charge of the cost at least of that.

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

Sir, there were reduction costs, and, again, the government has indicated it will provide those.

Again, those correct costs will be provided to—

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Would it be your office that would provide the actual—

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

We would provide part of it, sir. At that time, Camp Mirage had been operating under the authority of CEFCOM. The air force was the primary force generator, and then we augmented that in terms of theatre activation. There were a number of different entities that would've been involved, or were involved, with respect to the closure of Camp Mirage.

I would've been part of the cost, in terms of maintaining and understanding the costs as we rotated that back, but not all the costs—

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Would that come out of your budget?

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

No, sir.

There's an operating budget that is maintained by CEFCOM for operations, and we would put—

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

CEFCOM, sorry. I'm like--

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

I apologize, sir.

The Canadian Forces Expeditionary Force Command, now commanded by General Beare, is ultimately responsible for, and has been responsible for, deployed operations internationally. They are the ones who, when there is an operation, provide the input in terms of budget, and they are the ones, of course, who would—as I require to do things in support of the operation, I would be requesting authority for certain values of money to—

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

You'd have a part of the picture, but not necessarily all of the picture.

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

That's correct, sir.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

In having part of the picture, presumably you would say, “This is our part of the cost,” and the figures run between $90 million and $300 million, so it's a bit of a broad range in the public discourse.

If you're contributing to the costs, the cost that's attributable to your part of the operation, does that come out of your budget?

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

No, sir.

As I tried to indicate, and if I wasn't clear—

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

There are so many acronyms floating around here, I'm getting kind of lost.

Does it then come out of the overall military budget?

[MGen Mark McQuillan]

Correct. There is an operating budget that is requested by the department for the cost of operations. That is the budget we would draw against.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Therefore, is it logical to say that if the figure is $90 million or if it's $300 million, it's the military global budget of $19 billion or $20 billion that eats that cost?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. Alexander on a point of order.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

General McQuillan is here to brief us on operational readiness of the Canadian operational support capacity. Camp Mirage has nothing to do with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I was going to intercede as well. If a witness is before committee—back to chapter 20, page 1068-1069—and it's outside their responsibility, and General McQuillan has said that this is an area outside of his responsibility, he's excused from having to answer those questions.

As well, Mr. McKay, we will have the supplementary estimates coming up, at which time I'm sure you'll have a chance to question the minister on that issue.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Frankly, I can't think of anything that's more relevant, Chair and Parliamentary Secretary. These are questions that certainly the Major-General is familiar with because he's already contributing to them, both logistically and otherwise. It does affect readiness. If there's a drain on the military budget for $90 million to $300 million, that affects readiness. That's a significant sum of money.

I don't know why, frankly, you should be ruling in any way, other than that you let members ask whatever questions the members wish to ask. I don't think it's up to you, or anyone else, to determine the relevance of any questions that I or any other members ask.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. McKay, I never ruled on whether or not it was relevant. What I am saying is that based upon General McQuillan's response, it was not his area of responsibility. The rules are quite explicit that we can excuse witnesses from answering—

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

But he's already conceded that it is partially his area of responsibility. All I'm trying to figure out is what is the part of the area of responsibility.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

As you can see, I'm—

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

On that point of order, Mr. Chair, the witness has clearly identified that it is beyond his scope to answer that question fully and completely. I think that's fair, and I think common sense also has to apply.