National Defence Committee on March 20th, 2018

[Patrick Finn]

We have the information, so we can absolutely take that away and provide the information from our inspection on the cost piece.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Once we have done the proper analysis on that we'll be able to share that information, but we need to go through our due diligence on this. Once we have it, we'll have the right number.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you. I think my time's up. Thank you for coming.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

MP Alleslev.

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

Thank you very much, Minister.

I want to highlight the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's annual report and a fantastic picture of a Canadian Herc. Thanks to the minister and the team for providing them with the opportunity to visit Canada's Arctic. It was a team of 50 members of Parliament from 29 NATO countries, and it was a very important trip.

Thank you very much, Minister, for such an important engagement in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. As you know, we will be hosting 850 parliamentarians at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly annual session this fall, in November. Of course, we are hoping very much that you will be able to find it in your schedule to attend.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

I look forward to it.

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

Further to that, part of what the NATO Parliamentary Assembly of parliamentarians from government and opposition parties all over the NATO ally and partner countries is wrestling with is the education of each of our countries on NATO and its importance to our defence and security, and to the economic and political values and way of life that we enjoy.

I understand that Canada is part of the NATO pilot around education for #WeAreNATO. I wonder if you could share, at this point, any information on what we're doing in that regard and how we see that rolling out.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

We see it quite regularly on social media. It is important for our citizens to know the importance of NATO. It provides extremely valuable security deterrents for our nations. It sends a very significant message; NATO sends a message to our adversaries. More importantly, it gives a sense of stability and security for the partner nations.

But let's not just look at the partner nations. Let's look beyond. NATO provides a stabilization function, I would say, for the greater part of the world. The work that it currently does in Afghanistan and the efforts in supporting the work in Iraq.... We're constantly looking at ways that NATO can do more in other parts of the world and be supportive of other operations. I think one of the biggest messages right now because of the resurgence of what you see with Russia.... We saw, just recently, the nerve agent attack in the U.K. Having our citizens understand the importance of NATO, the unity, and what we can bring to bear in terms of deterrents is extremely valuable. When you put our collective budgets and resources together, it sends a very strong message. More importantly, you have nations that are part of the rule-based order and that are bringing that sense of stability and confidence to other nations.

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

Just to close out that topic, if there is anything that we, as parliamentarians, can do—certainly as part of the education and working group for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly—around educating our citizens and supporting you in your initiative within Canada for the #WeAreNATO campaign, please can you include us in that, so that we can be a united front in terms of educating on NATO?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Yes, and the biggest one is for nations to support, rather than pull out support from NATO.

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

Thank you.

You also mentioned in your opening remarks about cybersecurity initiatives and an increase in investment in those areas. We've certainly seen a lot in the news recently, both at home and abroad, about the risks we face on that front.

Could you give us an idea of what some of that money will be used for, and how much we're looking at?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

We have put a lot of emphasis on national defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Canadian Armed Forces also has a cyber component, but CSE really plays a significant role in protecting our critical infrastructure, providing valuable resources, and having literally world-class expertise.

I'm going to have our chief speak to that in just a second, but these are the critical investments our government is making to make sure we stay at the cutting edge, making sure we're able to have the right experience.

In 30 seconds or less, Greta, can you...?

[Greta Bossenmaier, Chief, Communications Security Establishment, Department of National Defence]

There is no doubt that cybersecurity has become such a large issue, not only for Canada but for countries around the world. For over 70 years, CSE has been in the business of helping to provide cyber and IT security to the government, and more and more to the broader Canadian industry and private industry, and citizens for that matter.

You'll note that in budget 2018 there has been an announcement to create a new Canadian centre for cybersecurity. We feel very privileged and proud that this centre will be housed within CSE and really allow us to bring our expertise in a unified way to Canadians, to the Canadian private sector, and to the Canadian government.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Thank you.

I have one last three-minute question to MP Garrison.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC]

I'll turn my time over to Ms. Blaney, from North Island.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much.

I am the proud representative of 19 Wing Comox. I see you were there at the end of January, and I'm very proud and excited about the new SAR training centre, but I have a really specific question for the riding.

IMP Aerospace holds the contract for maintenance of search and rescue helicopters in Comox. Currently, 50 employees represented by UNDE Local 21018 have been without a contract since June 30, 2015. The issues are not just about wages. It's about health and safety, especially hearing protection, and issues of being pressured to go to Greenwood, Nova Scotia, where IMP holds the contract, which is a non-union work environment. Without adequate compensation, and without regard to personal and family situation, it's very stressful for the community and the staff. These activities result in poor morale, problems with retention and recruitment, and—most concerning—the loss of serious skills that we need.

I'm just wondering if you could share with us what role DND plays when contractors fail to deal fairly with employees, and in making sure this doesn't affect search and rescue in our region and across Canada.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

First of all I can assure you that search and rescue is an absolute priority for us, and we're actually investing not just in the training centre in Comox, but also in our new fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft that are coming. I've had a quick update.

I'm going to see if Pat can answer the other question, but I just want to give you confidence on search and rescue. There are even additional things that we're going to be looking at in the future, on how we stay relevant to search and rescue way into the future.

Pat.

[Patrick Finn]

To answer your specific question, for the contract it's performance of the contract, so how we ensure there is no impact on the search and rescue capability is through the performance measures and the application of the contract and what is delivered there.

When it comes to contractors in general and their labour agreements, we're somewhat at arm's length. We monitor that to make sure it doesn't impact on performance. It is something that occurs on a cyclical basis, but we are generally not directly involved with those labour negotiations, although, because it can impact us, we monitor it and engage the company if we have concerns.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

One of the things, as I said in the question, is that we are seeing at this point that one person has actually resigned because they're just feeling very concerned about the pressure to move. Also, as I said, a lot of these concerns are around safety and protection—making sure to protect their hearing—and the feeling that they're being strongly pushed to move from their community to relocate somewhere else, far away from their community, that doesn't have the union representation.

Those are big concerns as we see people with those high-level skills leaving our communities and leaving something so important, such as search and rescue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Okay. I'm going to have to leave it there. Mr. Bezan wanted to chime in here really quickly.

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

Based on the testimony today there are two quick things that I think will require some follow-up.

Mr. Finn, in response to Mr. Yurdiga's questions about the used Aussie F-18s, you said they have done an evaluation as well as an assessment on those planes. I think it would be good If you could table that document with the committee.

Secondly, Minister Sajjan talked about tabling, on May 18, the “Strong, Secure, Engaged” fiscal plan. I would ask that the minister provide the technical briefing to committee on the day that this is tabled.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

That's the defence investment plan.

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

As long as you will commit to it, the full technical briefing....

[The Chair, Liberal, Stephen Fuhr]

Do you want to chime in there, Minister?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

I'll have a chat with my staff and I'll get back to you.