Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, I find it strange that the hon. member for Charlesbourg just a few short weeks ago was soliciting members of the Canadian Armed Forces to join a new Quebec armed forces and today he is actually trying to appear to be concerned about the Canadian Armed Forces. It is quite frightening to see this type of motion. I urge the hon. member to seriously read section 62 of the Criminal Code and reflect on his actions of a few short weeks ago.
I also take this opportunity to voice the outrage of Canadians over the mismanagement of the defence portfolio by the Liberal minister. Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition has its own provincial angle on this issue, one which is largely out of touch with that of the majority of Canadians, despite the Bloc's sacred title. The Reform Party, the de facto opposition party in the House, opposes the motion put forward today by the Bloc Quebecois because grassroots Canadians want value for their tax dollars.
Canadians have told us that Canada desperately needs to replace its aging military equipment with new equipment which can meet a certain set of performance criteria. We need to buy this equipment off the shelf so that we can purchase the best equipment with our taxpayers' dollars. I support and I am determined to fight for the
removal of all measures which are designed to insulate industries from competition.
Canada is over $550 billion in debt. Much of our equipment is older than the military personnel using it. We can no longer play the regional development game when our armed forces need new equipment within the current environment of fiscal restraint.
This does not preclude Canadian companies in the Canadian province of Quebec from bidding on military procurement. I am confident that Quebec's military and aerospace industry, like the military and aerospace industry in other provinces, is up to the task of competition with other national and international firms. An off the shelf policy is certainly less threatening to Quebec industry than the Bloc's attempts to separate from Canada. That would do more harm to the military and aerospace industry in Quebec than any government policy to seek the best price for military hardware.
The motion is almost amusing in light of last month's referendum.
Can Canadian industry compete with the best in the world? I must answer with a resounding yes. There are dozens of military products and industries which are world class and have succeeded or can succeed in the international marketplace.
The Bloc Quebecois wants to reprimand the government for having dropped the Canadian content requirements in contracts for the purchase of military equipment. That is ridiculous. Canadians know that buying military hardware off the shelf is the only practical way for military procurement in Canada.
Procurement is central to the operations of any military service. In the modern era when weapons systems are so complex and design and delivery stages can extend over a decade, successive Canadian governments have too often overspecified Canadian forces requirements. Successive Canadian governments have also used the military as a tool for industrial benefits and for the pursuit of regional economic development. The result has been costly to Canadian taxpayers and the armed forces.
These factors are responsible for the gigantic bureaucracy for the management and control of military procurement. The costliness of an all Canadian design that has not faced international competition has resulted in our armed forces using outdated equipment. Too many resources were being spent on one megaproject while the modernization and upkeep of existing equipment was put on the back burner.
In other words, whenever possible the armed forces must purchase the most cost effective and capable military platforms, such as helicopters, armoured personnel carriers or submarines. If no Canadian defence industry can produce the entire platform at a competitive price, then so be it. There will still be room for Canadian industry in the development and manufacture of subsystems and in the long term, maintenance of the platform.
In addition to acquiring military platforms for the armed forces in a timely manner, the savings to taxpayers would be enormous. The whole procurement process would be simplified. The role of government agencies would be eliminated and significant costs associated with seeking regional benefits would disappear. The end result would be a better equipped armed forces for the money.
In some instances, Canadian industry will be able to compete and acquire a licence to manufacture an existing platform in Canada. I am sure Canadian industries will be highly successful in competing globally for manufacturing rights to existing products. When this occurs, the armed forces and the taxpayers are again the winners. The procurement process will be streamlined. Jobs will be created. Spending will remain in Canada and other Canadian firms will get the opportunity to compete for subcontracts.
My fear is that the Bloc Quebecois motion is actually redundant. I am not confident this government is going to follow through and implement a true off the shelf policy. Let us look at the government's procurement track record so far.
In 1994 the Minister of National Defence tabled his white paper on defence, the first comprehensive look at Canada's defence policy since 1987. In it the minister pays some lip service to the off the shelf concept. The white paper states under the heading of procurement: "The Department of National Defence will adopt better business practices. Greater reliances will, for example, be placed on just in time delivery of common usage items to reduce inventory costs. The department will increase the procurement of off the shelf commercial technology which meets essential military specifications and standards".
While this is hardly a ringing endorsement of an off the shelf, taxpayer friendly way to military procurement, it is a start. Maybe this government's actions are stronger than its words. Let us look at some of the specific purchases by the Minister of National Defence since 1993 and see if he shows some concern for Canadian taxpayers and Canadian military personnel and determine if he has grasped the off the shelf concept.
One of the latest procurement contracts I am aware of is the minister's $2,000 gold plated pen contract with an Ottawa firm. If the minister had a concern for his troops and Canadian taxpayers, he would have shopped around for a bargain. He would have gone to Grand and Toy and Office Depot, to name two major pen suppliers, which have commercially available pens that could be purchased off the shelf. But no, the minister had a number of specifications. They had to be quill pens with gold engraved
lettering and supplied in a crushed velvet pouch. So much for the minister and his lip service to off the shelf.
Wait. Maybe that purchase was just a fluke. Maybe the minister's track record improves when we examine something that is not for his personal use. Let us examine the government's track record vis-à-vis one of the major equipment purchases this government faces. Let us look at this government's handling of the replacement of search and rescue shipborne helicopters.
This sorry tale begins in the dying days of the previous Tory government. Prior to the 1993 election the Conservative government had set in motion the purchase of the EH-101 replacement helicopter. By the fall of 1993 hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent on research and development.
The hefty cost of the EH-101 which totalled $4.4 billion including training personnel, spare parts, training manuals and training programs prompted the Liberal Party to make a campaign promise to scrap the purchase. This campaign ploy is proving to be costly to taxpayers and a minefield for the Minister of National Defence who has to replace our current deficient fleet while showing the taxpayers that the Liberal government has saved them money.
The fallout from this campaign promise has been great. Our military personnel were told they would have to spend more time flying obsolete and increasingly dangerous helicopters. Our ability to enhance our defences and to get the most out of our new frigates has been deferred. Taxpayers have been forced to waste up to some $600 million on cancellation fees, but all the costs are not in yet. Some experts are saying that the total could cost Canadian taxpayers up to $1 billion at the end of the day.
Sadly the Liberal cabinet is playing politics again. The defence minister has publicly committed himself to purchasing new helicopters and finally announced last week that he would purchase 15 new search and rescue helicopters. He boldly proclaimed that they would be purchased off the shelf for just $600 million. Six hundred million dollars to $1 billion is the amount the Liberal government has forced Canadian taxpayers to spend on helicopters since the election of 1993. But where are the helicopters? The $600 million figure like our aging Labradors and Sea King helicopters does not fly.
To purchase the 15 helicopters Canadian taxpayers are really being asked to spend $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion when the EH-101 cancellation costs are factored in. That equals about $80 million to $100 million each. That is probably more than the average cost of each EH-101 helicopter.
The only reason the minister is forced to commit himself to an off the shelf purchase of helicopters is the political game of football the government has been playing with helicopters. The EH-101 cost included spare parts, pilot training, manuals and other incidentals. The defence minister left these costs out of his assessment, making his new search and rescue variant more costly to taxpayers.
There is more too. The minister has lowered the operational specifications for the helicopter by 15 per cent. The EH-101 was not an overspecified helicopter. The EH-101 had a set of specifications to meet Canada's expansive geography and our severe weather conditions. Specifications include a range of 550 miles; a speed of 160 knots; a hover capability for a 7,500-foot altitude; a capacity to rescue and carry nine people; a day, all night and all weather capability including severe icing conditions; and the capability of making a safe recovery following the loss of one engine.
The Liberals had wasted so much money calculating the EH-101 deal they could not afford to purchase an off the shelf helicopter that could meet Canada's unique needs.
The announcement that the operational requirements for our search and rescue helicopters is being reduced calls into question the Liberal government's commitment to Canada's search and rescue. What are we telling our fishers and their crew off the west coast of Vancouver Island in an emergency situation? The government is sending them a strong message, scribbled with a pricey quill pen that says: "We may not be able to assist you. The weather is too bad and you are out of range. Good luck".
As for the shipborne helicopters, the cabinet and the defence minister are still wrangling over the difficulty in deciding how to tell the public that they need to spend billions of dollars on a project they cancelled as a campaign promise.
I expect to see the same result with the shipborne helicopters as with the search and rescue variety. Canadians will get at best an inferior helicopter in less numbers for the same price as the EH-101.
Who are the losers? First Canadian taxpayers and second our military personnel. The Minister of National Defence has an approved defence budget and an approved white paper which apparently account for the purchase of new shipborne helicopters. Yet the minister is unable to get cabinet approval to make this important decision. Why? Media reports speculate on the worst. They believe cabinet is fighting over the division of regional benefits.
In August the Financial Post claimed a Parliament Hill lobbyist had said that the Minister of Human Resources Development and
the Minister of Transport were pressing the Minister of National Defence for investment in their regions.
When looking at other major procurement items on the government's agenda it becomes apparent the minister was forced into an off the shelf promise on helicopters because of the fiscal mess the government has put itself in over the EH-101 cancellation.
The recent press conference the minister held to announce his plans for search and rescue helicopters was a non-event, to say the least. The minister only announced his intent to accept bids, something most of us thought had occurred long ago. Normally the minister would announce the items to be procured, the cost to the taxpayers and the industry involved.
This is exactly what happened in August when the minister announced his intent to purchase 240 new armoured personnel carriers in addition to a program for refurbishing about 1,200 of our existing M-113s, Grizzlies and Bisons. In this example the minister threw the concept of off the shelf to the wind. It was lucky for him that he had no APC cancellation contracts to contend with. In this case the minister knew exactly which companies would be awarded the contract. General Motors of London, Ontario was awarded the contract to produce 240 new APCs for $800 million, with the government keeping the door open to ordering another 411 at a future date for a cost of just over $2 billion.
To determine whether this contract was value for money, I submitted an access to information request in August asking for documents showing the minister and his senior officials at DND shopped around and bought the best APC for the money. The information act states that the department must respond to requests within 30 days of receiving them. It is now the end of November. I have heard nothing from the Department of National Defence and I expect the worst. I imagine the department is stonewalling because it knows this is not an off the shelf purchase.
I bet those documents are sitting on the bottom of the in basket of the deputy minister of defence as we speak. I also bet the next set of defence estimates this spring will have a column under the APC project entitled regional benefits.
While the verdict on the new APCs is not in yet, it is clear the APC refurbishing contract awarded to Montreal's 202 workshop is an exercise in regional pork barrelling. This was the price of cabinet approval for the purchase and represents old style politics at its worst.
The latest major purchase the minister has made known is the option to purchase surplus British Upholder class submarines to replace our aged Oberon class subs. The asking price of $800 million dollars for four Upholders, training vessels, spare parts and documentation is a bargain. I suspect cabinet will not allow the minister to announce this purchase because there is no pie to be divided among the regions.
To conclude, the motion put forward by the Bloc Quebecois is the exact opposite to what Canada must do to get its fiscal house in order. This is not surprising. What is surprising is that the government has not embraced the off the shelf concept as a means by which Canada can upgrade its aging and increasingly dangerous military equipment.
If Canada is to maintain its modest military and continue to play an effective role in our nation's defences and international affairs, it must change and it must change quickly. As the Reform Party defence critic I will be watching every aspect of DND's purchases, from pens to submarines. I will ensure that taxpayers and our dedicated military personnel are getting the most for their money.