Evidence of meeting #126 for National Defence in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was training.
A video is available from Parliament.
Deputy Minister, Department of National Defence
Thank you.
I appreciate the opportunity to clarify. It's a bit of a boring answer. I'm sorry.
Deputy Minister, Department of National Defence
What we were talking about was the SMSRC structure, the entity. It was created very quickly, with a whole lot of extra positions and with people and needs being met, month by month. It was set up in a rapid fashion to be able to deliver. The review was on whether we have the right structure in place and whether we have the right number of people doing the right number of things. That is what has been under way, and as far as I'm concerned, it is almost done. This is, of course, directly done with those who are leading SMSRC right now to make sure, for instance, that baseline funding is in place and that the positions are the right level, are in the right place and are staffed properly.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
I had actually hoped to speak with officials on Tuesday, as we are starting a study about toxic or contaminated DND sites. In London—Fanshawe, there's a national defence property. There has been an incredible amount of work done there. Within budget 2024, there were full announcements of the selling of surplus federal lands. I saw this in the federal contaminated sites inventory. I saw the amount of work being done. It's millions and millions of dollars. There have been 38,600 tonnes of soil treated. There's a lot of work.
I need to know if you can confirm the scope of the contamination of this site, if there has been proactive communication and disclosure to municipalities within this site, and if you could table with the committee all communications sent to my constituents and to the municipality outlining the health risks posed by this extreme amount of work being done on this site and on other sites.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
I want to thank Ms. Mathyssen for the questions.
You're way past your time.
You can respond to that in due course, as you see fit.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
I would ask for the tabling of those documents, just to be clear.
Thank you.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Of the 70,000 people who applied to join the military last year, just 7,000 recruits were accepted. Of those 70,000, what number were rejected because they didn't meet the Prime Minister's woke agenda quotas?
Pardon me. Were 70,000 rejected?
Conservative
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Okay.
There were 7,000 accepted. Of those, how many were rejected?
LGen Stephen Kelsey
Perhaps I'll begin, Chair, with the distinction between those who demonstrate interest in joining and those who are actually enrolled. In between there is the category of those who are given an offer.
One of the things we offered was to come to the defence committee and walk through all the numbers. I'll answer the question directly.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Just what number of Canadians were rejected because of DEI? What number were rejected on that basis?
LGen Stephen Kelsey
I'll try to answer directly because you deserve that.
We focus on who gets enrolled, not necessarily on who clicks and shows interest. The vast majority of people.... The number I'm tracking is 42,528 applicants. Those are people who click and who show interest, but in fact, the enrolment is something much smaller. It's based on personal individual circumstance and based on our need. It could be health, although we're changing that. It could be—
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
What number are we still short for the forces to be at full strength?
LGen Stephen Kelsey
For the regular force and the reserve, I'll give you three numbers, if that suits the chair.
LGen Stephen Kelsey
We've previously said that 71,500 is the authorized regular force strength. We are currently at 64,076. This includes people who are qualified and trained and people in the training system. We have 30,000 reserves, and 23,008 reserves are currently filling those seats.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Amid the $2.7 billion in cuts, how will the CSE cyber command be able to achieve the operational readiness to defend our country from cyber-attacks?
Chief, Communications Security Establishment
Thank you for the question.
As CSE, we definitely stand to the ready, as we do every day, to defend Canada and Canadians' interests. In terms of the foreign cyber-operations and the cyber command that we have, that continues to do the role that it has on a daily basis. There are no direct cuts to those resources. On the contrary, the investments that we hope we get out of the supplementary (B)s include investments in the foreign cyber-operations, which will allow us to continue to do the defence of the country via our active cyber-operations and our defensive cyber-operations.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Was our military impacted by Liminal Panda? The CrowdStrike group identified a recent hack. It affected U.S. state telecoms.
Chief, Communications Security Establishment
Thank you for the question.
I will not comment directly on cyber-incidents. What I can tell you is that we are aware of various incidents that occur, including those that could potentially have impacts for our defence and CAF colleagues. We work very closely with them to ensure that we defend that. Because we have the ability to use our defensive cyber-operations, we're actually often able to thwart the attack prior to it reaching Canadian shores and deal with it in the cyberspace.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
In the Baltic region, they have had fibre cables cut. They're alleging that it was the Chinese, the Communists. Have any of those cut fibre optic cables been impacting Canada in any way?
November 21st, 2024 / 9:50 a.m.
Chief, Communications Security Establishment
Again, for reasons of national security, I won't get into the level of detail you're seeking. Having said that, I can tell you that because of the close partnerships we have with the allies we work with, we as a nation continue to be well protected and do not have any concerns with regard to our cyber-protection.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
There were transfers out from defence spending in the amount of $1.5 million to ACOA. I'm wondering how ACOA or these venture capital projects are helping or assisting the military.
