Evidence of meeting #40 for National Defence in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
We are moving towards that, but the thing is when it comes to the decision, I want to make sure that we have the contribution and impact for the mission.
Deputy Minister, Department of National Defence
Just on the money question, the money is there for people doing the planning and the options analysis now. That's going ahead under the chief, reporting to the minister.
Once the government makes a decision on an operation, there will be money that will come with that through the committee as well in the estimates process.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
I just want to sneak in a self-congratulation for our committee. We talked about it. We did a really good job as a team in trying to raise Canada's concerns that some of the things that come out of the White House may inadvertently destabilize our trade and our good military relationship. We tried to raise that concern with them. We said that we don't feel like they're aiming at us, but sometimes they're hitting us.
As a committee, I think we spoke as one voice there and tried to deliver that message.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I appreciate all the work you did. To all of you, thank you.
Liberal
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you, Minister, for being here.
Thank you, Dom, Ron, John, Claude, and André for joining us as well to provide background detail.
Minister, the government is requesting $28.5 million to support the deployment of personnel under Operation Reassurance, and Randall touched on this. You suggested this is so that we'll be taking the lead of a NATO group in Latvia. That commitment was made before the U.S. election when we didn't know the outcome. We didn't know who was going to become president.
Since then, we certainly received some mixed signals about NATO during the campaign and since the election, from the new administration. What does a Trump presidency mean for our engagement in NATO in general and for our presence in Europe in particular?
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
It's a very good question. I can answer that quite directly, because I had the opportunity to be at the White House with the Prime Minister and other ministers. We discussed this with the President, the vice-president, and Secretary Mattis, who I've met on a number of occasions.
One message has been clear: the U.S. support for NATO is unwavering, and that will always be there.
The other message has been that any time there has been difficult work that needs to be done, Canada has always been there. We have a wonderful relationship, and this is a testament to our troops and our leadership at this level.
I also want to stress that when I say that we have the most diverse multinational battle group, that is a massive message that we're sending. I don't know how else to explain it. We can just send a battle group ourselves, but when you're trying to coordinate with other nations, what we are demonstrating is that we're working together with nations from the east and the south, Spain. That sends an extremely solid message. We are doing a phenomenal job of being able to coordinate this. It is actually quite complex. It's going to send a positive deterrent message to Russia.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you.
Randall mentioned our trip to Washington, D.C., which I thought was very successful. I share the comments that Mr. Garrison made. I think we really had a good feel for the way the Americans view our troops and view us as a country and as a partner.
As far as Latvia goes, are you able to share any detail on timing for Reassurance?
We're also considering going to Latvia, and I think we're talking about September, but I'm not sure.
Liberal
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
It's just something we're throwing around. Are you able to expand a little on this and some of the timing for Reassurance, and whether it's going to be beneficial for us to go?
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I'll tell you about the timing. Work is ongoing right now. We have teams that have gone there and are doing some great work. We have a planning team in Kingston, and some of the other nations were there. The plan is by June to have initial operational capability for all the four battle groups. Then, by late August, I believe, it is going to be full operational capability.
I visited Latvia myself. We've been able to build a wonderful relationship. It's quite extraordinary. I think that when you do have the opportunity to go, you'll be able to see the same things that I have.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
So you see that as something beneficial for the committee.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
I'll switch gears for just a moment.
There's $1.9 million for Guatemala for illegal trafficking. Can you just touch on that? We don't hear about Guatemala very often. Is that something that we're going to participate in, or is that something that we're just going to contribute to financially? I found that interesting, and it's not something that we hear about very often.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I attended the conference of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. We don't talk about the work that we do there. When we go to NATO we have a great reputation because of the work that we have been doing for a very long time in the Caribbean, and also in Central America.
For example, with Operation CARIBBE, we've been working with Jamaica and some of the other nations there on counterterrorism. In Guatemala, it's the same thing. We've been helping with the interdiction of drugs, with Operation CARIBBE. In Guatemala, this command centre is helping them bring up their standards to be able to do their work even more. It is a tremendous success story because we know from the history of that region what has happened there before.
It's not just about investment. It's about the skills that we've been able to work with them on throughout the year that have allowed them to have a command and control complex that they can actually manage. That's the real story behind it.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Those are stories that don't get out very often. They don't get reported.
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I know, and that's why I've directed the department to go out and talk to Canadians as much as possible about this.
Liberal
Sven Spengemann Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Thank you very much, Minister and your team. Thank you for being with us again. It's great to have you.
I want to return to Mr. Garrison's questions about recruitment, the $1-million request. I want to put it in the context of our visit to the United States this week. First of all, I'd like to echo some of the things you said, which we also heard at our level. There is tremendous gratitude for Canadian engagement. Senator John McCain expressed his thanks for our work in Afghanistan, particularly with regard to those women and men who have paid the ultimate price. It's basically a partnership, side by side, on so many different fronts. We heard this across conversations.
The other thing we heard is that we need to do more, so I want to ask about recruitment. When we recruit with a view to making sure that we have enough women and men who are willing to step into harm's way, which is the top of the game, what efforts are you undertaking to make sure that we get people interested in overseas missions, that they are motivated, and that they remain healthy physically and mentally? At the recruitment stage, what kind of messaging are you giving them, and what kind of response are you getting?
Liberal
Harjit S. Sajjan Liberal Vancouver South, BC
From my personal experience and from talking to folks across Canada, especially when we conducted our defence policy review, the problem with recruitment really hasn't been about getting people. It's been about getting them through the system and reducing the time so that they actually get through. With regard to getting people interested, the interest is there.
We do need to do more work on attracting more women and diverse communities to the military. Because of our global work, it's an operational necessity. It also gives us a much bigger talent pool.
We also need to address retention, which is about how we look after our troops. This is something we have looked at in extreme detail as part of our defence policy review. How are we looking after our troops? How do we make sure they are being looked after? How do we make sure they have certain deployments and enough downtime? How do we make sure the right benefits are there? If we're going to be recruiting more women, how do we make sure that the benefits are also going to be there for them? If a woman decides to have a family, that decision should not be a detriment to her career, and she should have the time to raise a family, just like any other Canadian.
These are things we need to address in a much more realistic way. Regrettably, we know our defence policy is not fully approved through cabinet just yet, but I look forward to discussing that more with you when the opportunity arises.
Liberal
Sven Spengemann Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Are there specific carve-outs within the $1-million request to address gender-specific recruitment strategies?
VAdm Ron Lloyd
The chief has specifically directed that we will increase 1% per year in terms of diversity of the workforce. The good news is that this year we have already surpassed the target set by the chief, and we will continue to deliver on that going forward.
The other thing I'd like to reinforce from the minister's points is retention. If you have retention, then you're doing less recruiting. I'd much rather have a 15-year petty officer or sergeant, as opposed to a young man or woman just off the street. Our policies have been, by and large, overcome by events as society has moved on and our policies haven't. The chief has directed, in line with the deputy and the minister, that we take a look at those policies and make sure they fit the 21st century. We're going to be undertaking a great deal of work in the next little bit just to make sure that we can deliver on that.
Liberal
Sven Spengemann Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Thanks for that. I really appreciate the point on retention. I think that is very important.
On reserve recruitment, is there anything specific we can do to increase recruitment intake and retention among our reserves, and is there any connection between reserve recruitment and that $1-million request?
