Madam Speaker, regarding the member's question about alternate service delivery, I do understand from my visits to Comox air force base that there has been a lot of alternate service delivery which has been brought into the military and to that base over the last several years. I think much of it makes sense, so far. However, there comes a point at which some of the essential things, especially those things that military personnel need to carry with them into combat, should be retained by the military.
The member's question about personnel being asked to take a 60% pay cut concerns me greatly. It tells me that somebody else has become the new employer and they want to retain the same employees but pay them less. If that is the circumstance, it is not one that I am aware of on the home front. I cannot say that it is something I would subscribe to. If there is alternate service delivery I would assume that the reason it is being done is because efficiencies are going to be achieved in some other way, through scheduling, through economies of scale or inventory.
However, to make one's cost savings by offloading onto employees does not make sense to me. I am with the member in terms of that part of his question.