Madam Speaker, it gives me pleasure to speak today to Bill C-25, an act to amend the National Defence Act and to make consequential amendments to other acts. The purpose of this act is to make substantial changes to the military justice system in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Probably the impetus or a lot of this dates back to October 1995 when the Liberal government issued an order in council to establish what became known as the Somalia commission of inquiry. Later that commission by order in council was prematurely shut down. This is the first time in Canadian history that an order in council has been used to shut down a commission of inquiry.
The reason that happened was the commission was about to investigate the involvement of the Liberal government in the Somalia affair. Allegations of murder, the cover-up of murder, the failure of the general staff and the government to hold anyone accountable for their actions or omissions, the culture of secrecy at the Department of National Defence and the double standards of the military justice system all bubbled up during the Somalia inquiry.
We all know that the Liberal government is no friend to the Canadian Armed Forces. It has done no favours for our armed forces by allowing a cloud to hang over them by shutting down the Somalia inquiry. It has not given them a clear mandate to fulfil and it has failed to adequately equip them for their tasks.
During the term of this government the Canadian military has never been asked to do more with less resources. The government has failed to provide openness, accountability and independence for the Canadian Armed Forces. There were three important recommendations that came out of the Somalia inquiry. They continue to be ignored by the government.
Regarding the military police, they should be taken out of the chain of command and given more independence. Judge Marin was commissioned to report on the military police. He recommended that they not have the power in Canada to conduct criminal investigations. This recommendation is totally ignored in the legislation.
It was recommended that the office of the judge advocate general be split into defence and prosecutorial roles. It was also recommended that the judge not come from the same office and probably should not come from the federal court, trials division.
The Somalia inquiry recommended the creation of an inspector general. The government continues to ignore this recommendation. It ignores this request because an inspector general would be independent. The Liberals continuously ignore the role of Parliament with respect to national defence. The government has forgotten that deployment decisions of our troops should be taken by Parliament.
British Columbians are justifiably proud of our military. But we are also very concerned that this government has denuded British Columbia of part of our military. It decimated Chilliwack. We still have Esquimalt and we still have Comox. It would be very difficult indeed for this government to remove the naval presence from British Columbia. Otherwise it would have done so by now, there is no doubt about that. All the west coast coverage for the air force comes from Comox, which is essential. It is bad news for British Columbia that we no longer have an armed forces base in Chilliwack. We no longer have the army presence that we look for in national or international emergencies, ice storms, Bosnia, Kosovo or Haiti.
If we have an earthquake on the west coast who are we going to look to? We are going to look to our military. Ottawa has let British Columbia down very badly indeed.
The Liberals have put politics before principle. They have put politics before what is good for the nation and good for society. The Liberals are no friends of the military. They are continuing to ask our personnel to fly unsafe helicopters. We had another helicopter crash last week. As my colleague said, it is a good thing they float better than they fly.
I think what we have to remember out of all this is that people in uniform are ordinary Canadians. They come from our communities and they are trying to do a job for our country. Yes, they are trained to an extraordinary degree in many disciplines and they are often extremely responsive and responsible. Let us be very thankful that we have them. This is not the treatment the military has received from this government.
In downtown Ottawa and in other cities we have military personnel in uniform being mistaken for security guards or parking lot attendants. That is how far our military has plummeted in terms of public perception in this country because our government is doing nothing to maintain, restore and give Canadians pride in our military tradition, a very important military tradition. It is crucial that we go beyond Liberal lip service and live off the legacy which is this government's way of dealing with our military.
Recently at the APEC conference we received a slap in the face. The Seaforth Highlanders were not considered Canadian enough for APEC. The Seaforth Highlanders from British Columbia, that proud group, were replaced by the Van Doos because of a decision by the Prime Minister's office. I wanted to ask a question but unfortunately I already know the answer.
There was a political decision to fly those people to Vancouver from the province of Quebec at a cost of $210,000. Who pays for a political decision? The Prime Minister's office? No. The Department of National Defence paid that $210,000. A hard pressed department of government paid for that political decision. That is the ultimate slap in the face.
Under the government the military has lost pay comparability with the public service. This is what our Liberal administration told us on Friday. Non-commissioned officer pay had a 6.7% shortfall compared to the public service and our general service officers had a 14.7% shortfall compared to our public service.
This displays Liberal mindset. First of all, our military personnel should not be compared with the public service. They are not the public service. They do not resemble the public service. Our personnel should be compared with military personnel on a world scale. I would suggest we start with other Commonwealth forces and U.S. forces. More on that later.
Shame on this government for allowing our military personnel and our police personnel, by the way, to fall even shorter than our public service. Why was this allowed to happen? Talk about demoralizing.
I see it right up front. I do not think I explained but within my riding is Comox armed forces base. I have a fairly good feel for what is going on with personnel. The problems all rest with this frontbench. Shame on it.
As I mentioned, Comox armed forces base is in my riding. The stress of low pay and extended absences on individuals and families is tremendous. Moonlighting is rampant and essential for many of the young members. A news release from government on Friday states that economic increases for Canadian forces personnel were intended to mirror similar pay increases expected to be awarded to all federal employees, including members of the public service.
This makes no sense. They are not doing the same job and there is no comparability. We should be tying our military to Commonwealth forces, to U.S. forces. We can look at the pay. We can look at the perks. We can look at the tax treatments.
If we had looked at all this we would not have a scramble from over here trying to deal with catch-up for our pilots. They are losing pilots one after the other. We will have a shortfall. There is no doubt about that.
Instituting a measure that favourably treats pilots is demoralizing for the rest of the personnel. Why in heaven's name we got ourself into this. There is no vision over there.
Canadian forces personnel travelling in the United States have more perks than in our own country.
Why this reciprocity is there is a little beyond me because there is a lack of any substantive favourable treatment shown to U.S. personnel travelling in Canada. They are not extended the courtesy that our personnel are extended there. Once again, this is shameful. It is something that needs to be addressed, but all we get is lip service.
The pay of the military has been frozen since 1991. We started to see some increases in an attempt to catch up with the public service, as I described earlier. However, a four year phase-in period is totally inappropriate. The morale within the armed forces is not only down because of the pay, it is down because there is no clear indication from government when the cuts are going to stop, when their organization is going to stop being downsized, when their organization is going to be equipped in the way that it needs to be equipped. There is nothing but uncertainty and concern that it is so far down the priority list in the pecking order of this government that it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep people in the military, especially our best and our brightest.
Where is the government's vision? The only conclusion that I am able to come to, after observing this place for four years, is that there is none. If we read the documents, all the fine words are there, but it is lip service.
Another thing that is contributing to problems with morale in the Department of National Defence is that the organization is always getting smaller and there are obviously very few opportunities for advancement. People are having to stay in their job classifications or job categories. Those are valuable people. We want to keep them. We also want to compensate them in a way that they deserve. That is not happening.
This government is great at pitting one group against another. It is starting to split the military into groups. I have already talked about this favourable treatment to pilots and how that is going to be viewed and is viewed by some personnel. This is just not the way to operate. We cannot constantly be ad libbing about how we are going to manage a major department.
Something we should all be very proud of is Canada's long military tradition. In many respects what makes and defines Canada as a nation started back at Vimy Ridge and continues to this day.
Whenever there has been a military engagement, peacekeeping or otherwise, since I came here in 1993, the impression I have had is that the government is making up the rules as it goes along. It does not have any sense of creating stability in the armed forces, creating combat capability or high morale within the voluntary military to represent Canada's interests and to fulfill what we deservedly should represent given our strong military tradition and history. All we have seen is the death of 1,000 cuts and a lack of commitment from Liberal administrations. We have actually never had a Liberal administration which has been supportive of the military beyond lip service and living off a legacy.
I have a brother who lives and works in the United States. I consider him to be part of the brain drain. He has been there for a long time. He works in a university environment where there are many very intellectual and intelligent people who are on the leading edge of many endeavours. It can be rather humbling at times for anyone in that environment to recognize that one has met someone who is more than one's intellectual match. One observation he carries that has really struck home with me is that some of the brightest and best in American society have their roots in the U.S. military. They say that the U.S. military has many of the nation's best and brightest. It is all because of this legacy and tradition and devotion to country and to making society a better place.
We have to ensure that we carry that tradition in this country. It is very important that we do that.
