National Defence Committee on March 6th, 2013

[Kevin Lindsey]

Exactly.

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

Thank you.

Minister, the Prime Minister has been pretty explicit about avoiding budgetary reductions on operational capabilities, part-time reserves, and training, etc.

Budget 2013-14, for most of the units, is out now, and some of them are receiving quite considerably less than they had the previous year. Some are in the order of 25% less.

The cuts will inevitably impact on the part-time reservists, and the long-term implication is lower operational capability and fewer well-trained soldiers. That seems to be specifically contrary to both General Leslie's report and to what the Prime Minister has said publicly about how to handle this contraction.

I'm not quite sure how you can square this circle, but I'd be interested in your response.

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Thank you, Mr. McKay.

Much of that response is found in the words and the letter from the head of the army, Peter Devlin. We have a very strong commitment from the head of the army. I might add that the army now operates with $500 million more in its budget since we took office.

So your characterization of having to do more with less is incorrect. There is more money in their base budget, therefore more money for training, including the training done by reserves. They will have the same number of training days made available to them annually, Mr. McKay. I can assure you of that.

There is an increase, as you know, in the overall number of reservists and regular force members now serving in the Canadian armed forces, and in the army in particular, in the infantry, to go a little deeper.

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

So is General Leslie just blowing smoke?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

I don't want to characterize General Leslie as blowing smoke. He's—

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

He's pretty upset with you, and upset with the fact that the way we're imposing the necessary fiscal realities on the military are exactly the opposite of what he'd recommended.

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

I have nothing but respect for General Leslie. I've never, ever, been given the impression that he was upset with me. He has given us recommendations, some of which were already in the works and well under way. Other recommendations are still being acted upon.

But I can tell you that our focus remains very much on having a modern military capable of multi-tasking. As everyone knows, we are in a much slower operational tempo, having come out of the combat mission in Afghanistan. That has provided not only monetary savings, but it has allowed us to refocus our energies on the priorities that we feel we have to focus on, and that is on reducing full-time reserves and protecting part-time reserves.

The standard we have had was 37.5 training days per year. Those rotations that were going through Afghanistan obviously led not only to a higher tempo in operations but also to a higher tempo in training.

So it's not really fair to compare the training days and the tempo that was taking place during that period of combat in Kandahar province to today's reality.

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

Nevertheless—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. Alexander.

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, with apologies to the committee, it has just been brought to my attention that the ministers are late for a previous obligation. We have made them late because our schedule is later due to the votes we had earlier in the House.

With your permission, I would propose that we allow the ministers to go and that the officials take up the remaining time.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

We are in bells as well. You have—

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

Could I maybe finish off my questioning?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

Sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

If the minister is okay with that, you do have one minute left.

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

I'll leave it that both John Selkirk of Reserves 2000 and General Leslie believe, and I think for good reason, that the contraction taking place is on the backs of the reserves.

The final question, however, has to do with the movement of the money from capital allocations to accrual. Does that effectively mean that no money will be spent on the seven programs you outlined—the helicopters, the Auroras, the LAVs—so that, in this fiscal year, that's it for all those programs?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Central Nova, NS]

It doesn't mean no money; it means less money. With accrual funding, accrual accounting, which, as you know, is quite complex, those projects—we were unable to spend the allotted money in this fiscal year, in some cases because of contractual obligations that were not met.

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

And how does that impact on—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Your time has expired. I'm going to cut it off.

The bells are ringing. We do have obligations to get to the House.

Usually we suspend, but by the time we get back it will almost be time to adjourn. We've had our time here with the ministers, so I'll just ask for a motion to adjourn now.

[An hon. member]

I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

It is so moved. Thank you.

We'll probably have time in the future for officials to return if we want to study supplementary estimates (C) further.

With that, we're out of here.