National Defence Committee on Nov. 25th, 2014

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Northwest Territories, NT]

Take it then.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Mr. Chisholm.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Mr. Fadden, you just said in answer to my colleagues—I think, but I may have misheard—that you believe you can carry out Operation Impact within the current budget of the Department of National Defence?

[Richard Fadden]

Mr. Chairman, I understand the House and its committees have a long-standing tradition whereby officials aren't asked to contradict their ministers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

You're quite right, Mr. Fadden. Nor are they asked to speak on policy.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Sorry. I was seeking clarification. I didn't mean to put you in a difficult position.

He had given an answer, Mr. Chairman, which I didn't hear from the minister. That's why I was looking for clarification.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

I believe the witness would like his answer to stand—

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

—and he would like to offer no further comment.

[Robert Chisholm, NDP, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

That is the end of your time.

Mr. Opitz, go ahead for five minutes.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You know what? I'm going to pass my time to Mr. Chisu.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Mr. Chisu, go ahead for five minutes.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

The minister alluded to funding related to assessment, management, and remediation of federal contaminated sites. Can you elaborate on that area? I know it is very important with regard to the contaminated sites that are coming out from the First World War.

[Richard Fadden]

Mr. Chairman, I wonder if I could ask Mr. Pitfield to answer. He's the assistant deputy minister responsible for this area.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Go ahead, Mr. Pitfield.

[Jaime Pitfield, Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Environment, Department of National Defence]

Thank you.

National Defence has a significant program share of the federal contaminated sites action plan. This year we will spend roughly $60 million to continue remediating the sites across Canada.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Can you specify which sites? Are you talking about Niagara Falls or Petawawa or...?

[Jaime Pitfield]

What we do is based on risk assessments. We have significant work under way at Goose Bay in Labrador. We also are undertaking work at Ipperwash. We have a number of sites. There are quite a few. If you name a specific one, I can tell you what we have.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Thank you very much.

DND is not requesting any additional funding for vote 5. Does that mean the building infrastructure is okay in every Canadian base? You are transferring more than $6.2 million from capital expenditures to help fund programs and initiatives in other federal departments and agencies. From my experience in the Canadian corps of engineers, I know that we always need to replenish the infrastructure on our bases. Is there any specification on that, or how are you explaining the transfer? It's not a big amount of money, but....

[Richard Fadden]

Let me start, Mr. Chairman. You're quite right that the Canadian Armed Forces is one of the largest holders of infrastructure in the country. Quite honestly, we could probably allocate more money on an ongoing basis to this function. There are limited capabilities and there's a limited amount of money available overall, so what we do, as Mr. Pitfield suggested, is that we have a list of priorities that we try to assign funds to in any given year.

I would note, if I may, that to some degree the government has recognized that we do need more money on infrastructure through the announcement of the Prime Minister yesterday, when he indicated that I think some $452 million would be available to us to enable us to both repair and enhance Canadian Armed Forces facilities. The difficulty we have, as I'm sure you are aware, is that in any one given year sometimes you can use more, sometimes you can use less. Some of the transfers out are to other departments to enable them to do things for us and vice versa.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

You have a moment.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

When you spoke about the $15 million of reinvestment of revenues from the sale or transfer of real property, can you elaborate on this vote 1 issue?

[Richard Fadden]

Can Mr. Pitfield answer, Mr. Chairman?