Evidence of meeting #45 for National Defence in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was iraq.
A video is available from Parliament.
Noon
Conservative
The Co-Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much, Mr. Norlock. That's all the time.
We're going to move over to Mr. Dewar, sir, for five minutes.
Noon
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
On this side, as the official opposition, let's start with a couple of things. This isn't about who can say they support the troops more than any other. Mr. Baird, you wanted to have a different tone. I'll go down that path. This isn't about who can have the highest rhetoric and ballyhoo. This about our job as parliamentarians in providing transparency.
Frankly, unlike our friends down the way, the Liberal Party, we wanted to have accountability and transparency at the beginning, for the very reasons that we have concerns right now. We wanted to have a debate and a vote in Parliament on the deployment of our troops. So what did we get, Mr. Chair, from our government at the beginning? I went with Mr. Garneau, with Minister Baird, and did a fact-finder. We didn't hear from one person in the meetings to send in air strikes. They didn't ask us to put in special troops. They asked us to help with the peshmerga, yes, and humanitarian assistance. That's what our policy was. That's what our amendment to the motion was, and our party put an amendment to the motion because we disagreed with the direction.
But we could not get from our government how many troops were going. You remember that, Minister? There are hundreds. We finally got 69 out of you and our Prime Minister, but we couldn't get what they were doing.
Also, I'll have to suggest, with respect, that we're playing semantics, when the Prime Minister says we're not going to accompany and we're accompanying.
It must confuse the heck out of you, as the Chief of the Defence Staff. My heart goes out to you, because at the end of the day when you have soldiers on the ground in the front lines, whether you call it a combat mission or not, they're in combat. We just heard about that. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck. It is about soldiers in the field. They're in combat.
We're trying to get some honest answers and some transparency. What's the cost of the war? We went down this path in Afghanistan when we sleepwalked into Kandahar without having a defined mission and proper parliamentary oversight. That wasn't your fault; it was the previous government's fault, but let's learn some lessons.
So if we don't have clear answers from you, our Prime Minister, and then our Chief of the Defence Staff, the men and women—I agree with Mr. Norlock—whom we put into harm's way are left to try to figure things out on their own. That is not correct. We need oversight.
To that end I want to ask you, Mr. Nicholson, if you understand why we need to have stronger oversight in the mandate. You need to be clear about the cost of this war, like our allies the U.K. and the U.S. have costed the war. When you don't put parameters on where our soldiers go, they will end up in combat and firefights. That's your job: to make sure it's clear, because right now it's not. Why not provide us with some clarity on the cost of the war and the parameters our soldiers are going to have in theatre?
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Mr. Chairman, there has never been stronger oversight for any mission undertaken by the Canadian government in Canadian history, quite frankly. We have been forthright, transparent, right from the start.
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Just a second, Mr. Chairman. I will complete this.
We put this matter before Parliament—
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
The honourable member says he wants stronger oversight. Decisions to deploy Canadian Armed Forces can be made by the executive. They're part of the prerogative of the crown. We, as a government, having taken a decision on this, put this matter before Parliament. This is exactly—
Noon
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
You promised that you would go to Parliament before we sent our men and women into combat. You failed on that.
Noon
Conservative
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
I'm entitled, Mr. Chairman. If he says he wants stronger oversight, I have already pointed out that we have had four technical briefings just in the month of January alone, never mind the ones in 2014.
Noon
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
What's the point of a briefing if you can't answer a basic question?
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Mr. Chairman, my colleague and I are here before this committee—
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Again, all costs with respect to this will be provided in the normal way, through the supplementary estimates.
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
I can assure this member that with the budget we already have passed, our equipment is there, our aircraft is there, our men and women are on the ground with our special forces.
I'm going to tell you, Mr. Chair, we should look at the human cost of not doing anything, which is what the NDP wants us to do. They don't want us to do anything—
Noon
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
—and that is unacceptable to me and to our government and to the people of this country.
Noon
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
What's unacceptable is that when they come home you don't take care of them.
