National Defence Committee on Dec. 10th, 2013

[MGen Michael Hood]

Within the Department of National Defence, in our annual operations and maintenance budget, all of the training of that unit and the various units that make up the DART are within the defence budget. Quite often, when we're sent on operations at government direction, that will either come from within the extant defence budget, or it will be supplementary to that. It will not be assessed for another 60 to 90 days. As to the process of capturing the cost and the rest, I'm not able to comment any further on that.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

In budget 2010, wages were frozen, but wage increases had already been negotiated. My understanding is that those extra funds came out of O and M, the operations and maintenance budget, creating a cumulative $355-million recurring hole in Defence's O and M budget. There was also a strategic review in 2011 that added a further $1 billion in cuts, much of which went into operations and maintenance. Then the deficit reduction action plan added a further $1 billion. Suffice it to say that this has had a major impact on O and M, an 18% or $1.4-billion reduction since the government's defence plan was put in place.

How does that affect the ability of Canada to provide DART for this situation?

[MGen Michael Hood]

Since I'm not the departmental chief financial officer, I'm not positioned to answer questions with respect to those effects. I can only say that in this case, the DART deployed in the minimum amount of time. We were there well ahead of many allies and continue to do great work, Ms. Murray.

I could take that under advisement and ask colleagues to get some answers to you if you'd like.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

In December 2012 at the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence, retired Lieutenant-General Peter Devlin, who was then the commander of the Canadian army, stated that the army's budget had by that point been reduced by 22% since 2010. We know that some of these reductions are reducing the ability for the army and for the Armed Forces to conduct training.

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, General Hood has already indicated to Ms. Murray that he's not capable or not given the mandate to handle financial questions. We're dealing with a humanitarian crisis here. We're not talking about the estimates. I'd ask that Ms. Murray talk about the topic at hand rather than badger our witnesses who are here to give us a nice briefing on the good that the Canadian Forces are doing, along with our partners in the Philippines, in handling a huge humanitarian crisis.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you, Mr. Bezan.

Ms. Murray.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Excuse me, I would appreciate if the parliamentary secretary would provide me the courtesy of being able to ask the questions that I choose to ask. Thank you.

We have heard that some of the training operations in mountainous areas, in the Arctic, and in other places of extreme geographical challenge have had to be curtailed. I would like to ask whether there is a way that the coordinated activities of DART for this kind of humanitarian disaster are being protected from the reductions in training that are taking place due to the O and M budget cuts.

[MGen Michael Hood]

With respect to my responsibilities for the force posture and readiness of the type of capabilities we use in the DART, they were all at the requisite readiness levels and postured to deploy. I can't offer commentary to General Devlin's testimony at the time. I can just tell you that those high-readiness units associated with the DART were at the requisite levels of readiness and deployed as requested.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

Since it's widely predicted there will be increasing numbers of unprecedented weather events that may be tied to climate change, is there a way the Armed Forces have been ring-fencing the budgets for readiness for this kind of activity, given there were further budget cuts made in 2013 and additional freezes in wages that will potentially continue to take funds out of operations and maintenance?

[MGen Michael Hood]

I'm sorry. It's not my responsibility or role. I couldn't even offer an answer to that. It's really the chief financial officer's responsibilities, ma'am. I'll have to defer to his expertise.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Would it be possible to find that information, how these budgets for DART relate to the other programs to provide assurance to us and to other Canadians that this will not be an area that's impacted by the budget cuts to the Armed Forces budget that have been ongoing since 2010?

[MGen Michael Hood]

I'll repeat that all of the assets associated with the deployment of the DART were at requisite readiness levels and trained and postured to deploy. I think that's the only way I can answer that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you. The time has expired.

We're moving into the second round of questioning, beginning with Mr. Opitz.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Through you, I will remain relevant and on topic. I want to point out that the climatologists point out that hurricanes are not a factor of climate change or anything like that.

Getting back to the DART, let's talk about high readiness a little bit. The DART is like a loaded spring in a sense. It's always ready to go. We have high-readiness brigades of course. Can you compare and contrast those against the DART's preparedness to depart?

General, you mentioned that the DART departed in a very short period of time in terms of a whole-of-government reconnaissance to the area. Could you comment on the DART's high-readiness capability day to day?

[MGen Michael Hood]

I think General Noonan is probably best placed to answer that, as the joint operations command looks after the posture of those forces. I'll defer to him.

[MGen Steven Noonan]

Fair enough.

As I mentioned to Ms. Gallant beforehand, in terms of our preparation for disaster assistance and relief, this is one of our highest readiness contingency plans. It is rehearsed at least on a yearly basis and the personnel, equipment, and materiel are ensured and ready to go at the notices to move. On the execution, although that is prepared for any time of the year, we can move those notices to move even to higher readiness, based on our read of the situation.

For example, on this particular operation, on November 8, through our Canadian Forces integrated command centre, we had an awareness that something was brewing and that the level of disaster was such that it might trip an international response. That was when we were getting ready to ensure that folks dusted off the con plans. Folks were warned that there might be a requirement to execute various modules of the DART, but certainly the reconnaissance elements were warned to get ready.

It became pretty obvious a day later that we were going to at least have to pre-position going forward, so that the time between authority to engage with the Philippine authorities and our folks being able to do that was lessened. That's why we forward deployed.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

You've mentioned an important point in terms of con plans, contingency planning, for Canadian Forces and whatever various elements you're doing. A lot of that, by the way, is learned at the Canadian Forces College. I know that both of you are probably graduates of the NSP and have worked with whole of government on that course, which is a tremendous building block.

On these con plans, the DART just doesn't sit on the bench waiting to be called in. You're looking ahead. You're seeing something happening in the world. You're working with your whole-of-government partners in DFAIT and other departments. You see something brewing in the world, so you're actively looking ahead.

As you said, you dust off the con plans, but there are already contingency plans in place if you need to activate them. You're looking ahead for the relevancy as to what you would do, and you would preplan various courses of action if you get the call. Would that be correct?

[MGen Steven Noonan]

That's correct, sir.

To push on perhaps a little bit beyond that, it's a question of finding the balance between speed and accuracy. As General Hood has mentioned, you need to have the conditions set such that you know where you're going and you don't become part of the problem as you enter into a theatre, into a potentially congested airhead, or whatever. That balance between speed and accuracy is contingent upon our understanding of the situation on the ground.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

That's so all the resources are used to their max.

Can you discuss, for example, military engineers and the road crew and things like that? Sometimes DART is DART, but you need bolt-ons, attachments and detachments from DART, such as, for example, the engineers. I think you took a company of engineers there. Is that correct? I'm sorry, not a company, but a platoon—

[MGen Steven Noonan]

It would be a troop plus.

[Ted Opitz, Conservative, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Yes, a troop, a troop plus. You took them over there and deployed them.

What is your thinking in looking at the Canadian Forces as a whole and saying, “Okay, we need the following to augment DART”? How do you follow that process?

[MGen Steven Noonan]

As we developed the plans for this contingency based on lessons learned from the previous employment of the DART-type effects, we noticed that a medical element is almost always required. We noticed that engineers are almost always required. Also, dependent on the security situation, we may have a requirement for defence and security to allow the protection of those elements. A command and control element is always required, and a logistics element is always required.

The core competencies of a DART are the ones that are placed on that 48-hour notice to move, with command and control and reconnaissance elements at higher levels of readiness.

[The Chair, Conservative, Peter Kent]

Thank you very much, Mr. Opitz. Your time has expired.

Ms. Michaud, you have five minutes, please.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

I want to begin by thanking you for your presentation, but also for the efforts put forth by the Disaster Assistance Response Team, DART.

In addition to the deployed DART equipment and personnel, Canada also provided funding to help the Filipino population.

Was that part of the same assistance strategy for the Philippines or the same process?

Can you give us details on how the financial contributions for the Philippines will be administered or invested to help the population?

[MGen Michael Hood]

I will ask Ms. Norton to answer your question.