National Defence Committee on Dec. 1st, 2016

[VAdm Mark Norman]

That's correct.

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

It would be for the Kurds?

[John Forster]

That's correct.

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

Mr. Chair, I know you gave some leniency to Mr. Garrison in asking questions that were outside of what's in the supplementary estimates.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

The committee gave him that latitude.

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

Okay, although there was one time you intervened for me.

I would ask for some leniency here, because I think Canadians want to know more about these non-disclosure agreements that have been signed. We did talk about the replacement of our CF-18 fleet, and how everyone assigned to that project has had to sign non-disclosure agreements. I would like to get an answer from our officials as to why that's necessary.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Before you go down that road, I am prepared to allow it, but again we're here for a very specific reason. You know the rules as well as everyone else here, so if we want to deviate and—

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

This applies to the replacement of our CF-18s.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

If everybody's okay with that, that's fine, but if they're not okay, I would rule that it's not in order.

If everyone could indicate to me—

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

It's a procedural matter. You're the chair. It's either procedurally correct or it's not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

I'm asking you if you want to give Mr. Bezan some latitude. If you don't, just let me know.

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

Could I make the argument that we did talk about the replacement of our CF-18 jets, which is on the table—

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

James, the question's been asked and answered. If you're asking for some latitude from the committee, then you go ahead and ask them.

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

It ties to that though. It is part of—

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Okay, so I see an answer. Mr. Gerretsen, are you willing to change your position on that or not?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I don't have a position on it.

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

Okay, I'll ask the question. These non-disclosure agreements are not a normal function of government. We do have the National Defence Act, as well as the Security of Information Act. Do the non-disclosure agreements go beyond that? Does this violate the rights of any of our staff that's provided to them under the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, in the event they want to be a whistle-blower?

[John Forster]

Mr. Chair, they're not uncommon on major procurement projects when your procurement officials are dealing with sensitive commercial information, financial information provided by proponents or suppliers, as well as national security information.

In terms of the work being done this past summer, where the government said it wanted to update its information from various suppliers, an interdepartmental tiger team was pulled together from Defence, Public Services, Justice, ISED, and in going out to the companies, as well as to our allies, we were going to be collecting commercially sensitive financial information, as well as classified sensitive security information from the U.S. and other partners. The non-disclosure agreements were signed by the members of the team to make sure they understood their responsibilities in protecting that information.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

That's your time. That's your question and that's your answer.

I'm going to give the floor to Mr. Gerretsen. If you have a question, you have five minutes.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

As it relates to the overall budget being just over $19 billion, do you know offhand what that represents in percentage of GDP?

[John Forster]

For this year, I don't. I believe for the previous year, Canada was about 0.98% of GDP in its defence spending.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

That was last year, but you don't know—

[John Forster]

For this year, I think it would be roughly about the same, but I haven't done the updated calculation.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

According to the minister's statement at the beginning, the department had requested new funding of just over $250 million. Do you have a sense as to what that is as a percentage of the overall budget?

[John Forster]

I'll ask Claude to do the math.