Good morning, Dr. Guay.
Forgive me, but I may address you as Stéphane in the course of our discussion; but I want you to know that it is not out of a lack of respect on my part. I generally call everybody by their first name.
I was elected for the first time on June 2, 1997. In mid-July, I met my first constituent with PTSD. He was a young fellow the same age as my son. Since then, post-traumatic stress disorder has practically become an obsession with me. I've read the books written by Pascale Brillon, whom you most certainly know of, and I have become deeply involved.
Along the way, I have come to believe that there must be a way of predicting, when a young soldier is being recruited, the kind of psychological problems he might experience in the wake of a peacekeeping or war-related mission. It's too bad that Betty isn't here. I always tease her because she doesn't understand Quebeckers' black humour or people that speak in parables. I often say that if we can afford to buy C-17s, we can afford to invest in development and aid. I was really shocked when a witness we heard from last Tuesday, Maj Le Beau, a very nice lady, told us that before young soldiers are deployed, they are given a half-day of training to explain PTSD.
The written works of people like Pascale Brillon describe many different symptoms that make it possible to do a self-assessment and determine whether one has post-traumatic stress disorder. For example, people with PTSD suffer from insomnia, nervousness, have nightmares, and lose weight. We know that young soldiers are machos—we shouldn't shy away from using such terms—who say that they're tough.
In this country, we spend money. I'm not saying it's money that's poorly spent, but we do spend money to provide them with modern equipment. We spend money to train them physically for combat or to be in the army. On the other hand, we only give them a half-day of training to prepare them mentally for warlike conditions.
Why can't a member of Parliament like Gilles Perron dare to tell the Canadian government, whatever his political stripes, that every time it spends a billion dollars to buy equipment, it should consider investing 1% of that amount in veterans, in order to educate our young people and provide them with the proper care later on?
What do you think of my investment plan? Stéphane, I am certain that, like everybody else, you say you haven't got enough money.