All of the members are hollering for more, but I have to keep it to what I really have to say. I am pleased that the minister will be speaking and be open to questions. I look forward to that.
All I have said about this legislation is not as important as a key component that has been missing from this government and from Liberal governments over the past 30 years. That component is a real show of support for and commitment to the Canadian military.
Before question period I was commenting on the three ways a government should show support for the military, the first being words, the second being money and the third being important and substantial change to the defence act and the way the defence department operates.
I commented on the words. To my knowledge, we have not seen a Liberal prime minister over the last 30 years stand up before the Canadian people and say very clearly that the Canadian military is absolutely essential to the security of Canadians in our country. I have not heard that the men and women in the military are good people who do their jobs as well as they can in the system they are forced to work within. I have not seen them show that kind of support for the people in the military. We hear that from the minister of defence but clearly that is his job.
It is absolutely essential for the Prime Minister of this country, the top person within the government of this country, to come out and show strong support for the military. Until that happens we are not going to have the proper level of morale, nor will we have a military that is functioning as well as it must function in order to offer the security that is so important for us. That commitment has not been there.
Money is the second key commitment that must be made by government. I go back to 1992 when Reform was putting together our zero in three plan, the plan to balance the budget in three years. We campaigned on this in 1993 for the election. In that plan we proposed reducing military funding from a level of about twelve and a half billion dollars a year down to about eleven billion dollars. We thought that was absolutely necessary based on the financial condition of the country.
This government has gone beyond $11 billion down to $9 billion a year that is being spent on the military. Our military cannot operate properly at that level of funding. The government has to show commitment by giving the men and women in the forces the proper equipment and the proper training. The men and women in the military right now do not even have proper personal equipment including uniforms and combat equipment. That is completely unacceptable.
On top of that, they need the best in terms of more significant, larger equipment like helicopters. There has been a promise to replace the search and rescue helicopters. What about the shipborne helicopters? We all know that the Sea Kings are unfit to fly. They operate under much more severe conditions for the military than they do during civilian usage. The military does not put as many hours on helicopters as the hours put on civilian choppers, but because of the vigorous and difficult conditions they operate under, they are not safe. This government will offer a replacement at the very earliest by the year 2005. That is the very earliest and that is not good enough. They just have not shown the commitment in terms of equipment and training. That has to happen before we will have proper morale in the forces.
Third, and this relates more directly to the piece of legislation that we are debating today, they have not shown a will, a desire or a direction when it comes to making the basis systemic changes that are needed to make this military operate properly.
This legislation, quite frankly, does not cut it. It is a series of half measures. Some of them are good and move in the right direction. However, when they are looked at and analysed, they really do not go anywhere near far enough.
We oppose this legislation. We will be making amendments and if the government will support our amendments, or put forth its own, offering the same kind of changes, then under those conditions we will support this legislation. It really depends on the government and what it will allow in terms of its own amendments and amendments from us and other opposition parties.
I will close by saying once again that I am looking forward to the minister and his presentation at four o'clock. I am looking forward to the questions that the opposition parties ask of the minister at that time.