Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee.
I'm pleased to be here today to discuss National Defence's main estimates for this fiscal year. The funding requested in these main estimates will allow National Defence to continue to invest in our personnel, equipment, and infrastructure.
This is of vital importance, because the world remains an unpredictable and hostile place. It's also important because our Canadian armed forces require unique capabilities in areas like disaster assistance, search and rescue, counter-insurgency, and surveillance so that they are prepared and equipped when they are called upon to help the Canadian people any time and anywhere.
Over the past year alone, our men and women in uniform have played a critical role, both at home and of course abroad. Last summer, you may remember, more than 2,200 Canadian armed forces personnel were deployed to southern Alberta to assist with flood relief, including by rescuing and evacuating dozens of Canadians in distress. Last November, more than 300 members of our military were deployed to the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan, where they purified nearly 500,000 litres of water, treated over 6,500 medical patients, and delivered food, goods, and building materials on behalf of NGOs and local authorities. Just a few weeks ago, we initiated the deployment of an air task force of six CF-18 fighter jets, HMCS Regina, 15 operational planning staff, and around 50 soldiers to various locations in Europe, where they are now contributing to NATO's efforts to reassure allies as a solution to the Ukraine crisis is sought, one that will respect the democratic aspirations of the Ukrainian people and the territorial integrity of their country.
As you can see, the Government of Canada and our armed forces continuously follow developments at home and around the world, and we stand ready to assist whenever necessary and appropriate.
Mr. Chair, less than two weeks ago Canadians from coast to coast assembled here on Parliament Hill and at events in many communities for the National Day of Honour. I hope that my colleagues around this table took time to mark this important day of recognition, because I think it's extremely important for this nation.
As you know, this moving event gave Canadians the opportunity to remember and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our men and women in uniform over more than twelve years in Afghanistan. They fought al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the Arma Mountains. They fought insurgents and supported development through the provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar, and they stood up an air wing to keep our troops and allies safe. They established, supported, and commanded the first NATO multinational field hospital involved in combat operations, and in the last few years of our engagement in Afghanistan they helped train the Afghan national security forces in Kabul.
It was a complex and demanding mission right from the start, but I am proud to say that more than 40,000 Canadian troops were deployed to the region, many of them more than once, and they succeeded in helping to stabilize the country, while securing the well-being of the Afghan people and the values we all believe in.
They could not have done this successfully, however, without strategic investments by the government in critical equipment, infrastructure, training, and services, including care for our ill and injured personnel. I know this is a matter of concern to committee members, one which you have studied extensively over the past few years, and as you are aware, National Defence has not only increased overall health care spending to $420 million annually, offering a wide range of services, including medical and dental care, support for families, return-to-work programming, expedited access to Veterans Affairs benefits through the joint personnel support unit, but we have also increased the investment in mental health care specifically, announcing an additional $11.4 million in 2012 to bring the total to $50 million.
This is one of the greatest lessons that we learned from our Afghan experience: the vital importance of long-term, predictable, yet targeted defence funding to achieve both responsiveness and mission success.
With that in mind, I would like you to review of course the National Defence main estimates for 2014.
On page 199 in the English version and page 186 in the French version, you will see that our estimated budgetary expenditures for this year are $18.7 billion. This represents a net increase of approximately 4% from last year's main estimates.
The overall increase is due primarily to an increase of $1.1 billion in our capital vote, required to align funding for major equipment and infrastructure projects with current acquisitional timelines. This includes funding for key projects such as the Arctic offshore patrol ships, the maritime helicopter project, and the family of land combat vehicles, which are crucial to ensure our ability to monitor and respond to threats at sea, on land, and in the air.
At the same time, National Defence is supporting our ill and injured with much needed infrastructure improvements at Canadian Armed Forces health services centres across Canada.
We have successfully implemented National Defence efficiency-finding measures as announced in budgets 2012 and 2013. These include a reduction in travel expenses, the transfer of technical support functions to Shared Services, and the transfer of liability for further severance payments to the Treasury Board Secretariat.
Mr. Chairman, we are committed to being good stewards of public funds and to carefully managing and balancing our resources as we strive to help the government return to a balanced budget by 2015. To this end, over the past year, we have made many efforts to do defence better and smarter. In collaboration with Public Works and Government Services, for example, we have launched an innovative defence procurement strategy to streamline and leverage military procurement.
An important part of the new defence procurement strategy is the publication of the Defence Acquisition Guide, which I was happy to announce yesterday. This guide contains a large list of capabilities that the Canadian Armed Forces will continue to examine in the next five to 20 years, and it will allow for early engagement between industry and defence. Subsequent discussions with the government will help determine which of these capabilities are chosen for implementation. We have been working in close cooperation with Public Works and Industry Canada to produce approximately 200 capability profiles that provide a description of each project's objectives, an estimated cost range for the acquisition, and an estimated timeline of milestones.
The Department of National Defence is committed to engaging with Canadian industry early on in our procurement process. This Canadian expertise is extremely valuable in making the best decisions possible in terms of military acquisitions.
As stated in the 2013 Speech from the Throne, the government values its partnership with industry as it ensures that all major military purchases create high-quality jobs for Canadian workers.
Mr. Chair, as you know, we have also engaged in a rigorous process of defence renewal, overhauling key business processes to find efficiencies while improving effectiveness, such as by encouraging broader maintenance contracts on base, making better use of new technologies for training, and centralizing services like information technology and real property.
Mr. Chair, I'd like to take a moment to say a few words on the handling of sexual assaults in the Canadian Armed Forces. This is an issue that has been before the media and, I'm sure, on the mind of many of you, as it has been on mine. I want you to know that I take the allegations raised in the media very seriously and so does General Lawson, who spoke with you the day before yesterday. As I am sure he mentioned on Tuesday, he is actively examining, as a matter of priority, how these allegations can best be evaluated and addressed, and he has asked for an external review of this matter. I think this is an appropriate course of action and I look forward to the details of this review.
It's my view that the main estimates before the committee today will enable the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces to continue to fulfill their critical defence mandate, a mandate this government has called one of its highest obligations, while continuing to improve business processes so as to achieve ever-greater impact for each tax dollar spent.
Thank you very much.
