National Defence Committee on Feb. 28th, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

I'm going to yield the floor to MP Alleslev.

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

I'll pass my time on.

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

I'll start.

Thanks for the comments, General Wynnyk, on the great work that the men and women of our Canadian Armed Forces are doing.

You and I were just recently at an event to celebrate the troops that had been part of Operation Unifier and saw the appreciation shown by the people of Ukraine and by the Ukrainian Canadian community here. Op Unifier is about to come to an end. We haven't heard if there is going to be a renewal of the mission.

As you know, the Government of Ukraine has been asking for an expansion and extension of that mission. Do we know if that's going to happen?

[Jody Thomas]

Certainly, our work in the Ukraine is very much appreciated and we're very proud of it. We know it makes a difference. The minister, in NATO, had multiple meetings discussing our mission in Ukraine. At this time, we can't comment on the future of it. We anticipate it to be positive, but we can't comment.

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

Okay.

Before I ask my next question, I want to move a notice of motion:

That the Committee undertake a study to determine the level of political interference that forced the Hon. Jody Wilson-Raybould to resign as the Associate Minister of National Defence and Minister of Veterans Affairs and that the study be composed of no fewer than three meetings.

I'll share that with the clerk for distribution.

It was reported in the news that National Defence spent about $161,000 on travel photographers from the armed forces to take pictures of the minister. In vote 1—I suspect in operations—how much is budgeted this year for the minister's vanity project?

[Jody Thomas]

That money comes from CAF operations and it's allocated. We have combat camera photographers who are sent on various missions. There's no specific budget for the minister.

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

Thank you.

I'm going to share the rest of my time with MP Alleslev.

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Obviously, the state of our capability in the military—and not the individuals serving, because they do wonderful jobs and their training is excellent—the overall state of the equipment and the operational capability, is of concern. Our aspirational NATO commitment over the next 10 years is to achieve 2%. We're just barely at 1%.

We have national security tariffs from the United States citing that we're a national security threat. Whether we agree with that or not, that's how the Americans have characterized it. We've heard from the U.K. and from France and Germany that they are looking for us to step up on our NATO commitments and the operational capability within that alliance.

We used to have three operational AORs. We have one interim AOR, and the JSS, the joint supply ship, is delayed. We have the Canadian surface combatant that is currently on hold because of procurement issues. We have used fighter jets from Australia—not the advanced fighter capability that we were promised, obviously in a campaign—and we don't have a competitive procurement document on the street. Then we find out that we're significantly short on military operational pilots and maintainers.

Those are just the highlights.

Defence is not a luxury. What confidence would you give to Canadians and what metrics and what specific critical success factors would you point to such that they should not be concerned about the ability of our Canadian Forces to meet foreign policy by other means, security at home, and what the government has asked the military to achieve?

[Jody Thomas]

That's a very important question and certainly one that we appreciate.

It is critically important that Canadians and I would say parliamentarians, if I may, understand the importance of continual investment in the Canadian Armed Forces. The boom and bust that we have gone through—not just in the shipbuilding industry, which is a phrase used about NSS all the time, but with regard to reinvesting continuously in the Canadian Armed Forces and equipment procurement, and capital equipment in particular....

I would submit that as soon as we finish building the Canadian surface combatants, we should be beginning the next program. We should be working with government to ensure that we don't have large gaps between equipment purchase programs.

The Canadian surface combatant project isn't delayed. It's not on hold; we're proceeding. We signed the contract, as Mr. Finn mentioned, for requirements reconciliation. We're proceeding with that work.

The RFP for the future fighter capability project, will be on the street in the spring. We are meeting every single milestone that we have laid out for that project. We are working on a program to recruit pilots and to improve the number of technicians in the air force.

We are being very transparent in the reporting of the milestones we are meeting in “Strong, Secure, Engaged”, to the point of making the investment plan public so that everything we do can be tracked by Canadians and they can question us on whether we are getting money spent, whether we're doing it efficiently and effectively and whether we're buying the right equipment.

[Leona Alleslev, Conservative, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

That's absolutely—

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

That's your time. I allowed it to go long so that the deputy minister could respond to your question.

I'll give the floor to you for a little more time, if you want. That was a long question. I'd like you to respond, if you want more time.

[Jody Thomas]

Thank you.

I think Canadians can also be reassured, as can parliamentarians, by the fact that we are continually asked to lead missions around the world. The quality of the Canadian Armed Forces is unchanged and is probably only increasing. We are working toward meeting our diversity targets and changing the nature and culture of the Canadian Armed Forces.

I think confidence can be taken in the Canadian Armed Forces from the work we're doing on Op Honour. We're not perfect. We're working very hard at executing “Strong, Secure, Engaged” and being the Canadian Armed Forces that we are—I'm speaking for the forces here, but I'll ask General Wynnyk to do so—and that Canadians are proud of and have a reason to be proud of.

Go ahead.

[LGen Paul Wynnyk]

I very much appreciate your kind words about our men and women in uniform.

Right now we have the equipment we need to execute the tasks we're executing. For the missions we're requesting extra money for in the supplementary estimates—missions that you're all familiar with—when the CDS makes the recommendation to government as to whether or not we deploy, a critical part of the recommendation is about whether we have the necessary equipment, particularly, if we're putting our men and women in harm's way, to make sure they have the equipment they need to address force protection and get on with the job.

Certainly, with the missions we're doing right now, I would say that Canadians have no cause for concern.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Thank you, General Wynnyk.

There are about two minutes left. I'd like to yield the floor to Mr. Spengemann for the last question.

[Sven Spengemann, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Chair, thank you. I very much appreciate this.

I'd like to circle back to MINUSMA and Task Force Mali, being mindful of the arguments raised by our colleague Mr. Garrison.

Have you been asked for or have you given advice on questions relating to the transition between Canada and, as it stands now, Romania?

[Jody Thomas]

The Canadian Armed Forces and our team on the ground and the training team here are working very closely with Romania to ensure a smooth transition. We're assisting them in their preparation. That's been a very close relationship from the moment Romania announced that they were replacing us.

[Sven Spengemann, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

What would be the operational constraints, if any, from the perspective of the Department of National Defence if the Canadian Forces were to be asked to stay—I'm not going to use the term “extend the mission”, but to stay longer—for two, four or six weeks at full deployment past July 31?

[LGen Paul Wynnyk]

The advice that the chief of defence staff has provided to the minister is one of sustaining that capability as we go forward, and essentially mortgaging our ability to do other operations. The aeromedical evacuation, the pilots, and the actual airframes could put a limitation on future operations, or even, getting back to what Mr. Cormier said, on domestic operations and on using those helicopters later on.

Once again, it's a government decision whether we go forward, but one of the biggest factors would be sustaining it over time. That was the original reason the one-year period was put out there.

[Sven Spengemann, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Have you been briefed on or have you given advice on the concept, as understood by the UN, of smart pledging?

[Jody Thomas]

Certainly our policy group and Global Affairs Canada have been very engaged on that.

[Sven Spengemann, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

Is it your sense that the UN and the Canadian Forces have the same understanding of what smart pledging is?

[Jody Thomas]

I believe so.

[Sven Spengemann, Liberal, Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON]

That's helpful.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

I want to thank all of you for appearing today on this very important issue.

Have a pleasant evening.

The meeting is adjourned.