Mr. Speaker, I would like to put a question to my hon. colleague from the Reform Party. Among the problems affecting our armed forces, I wonder if he does not see anything wrong with our military personnel.
According to the statistics to be found in part III of the latest estimates, in the volume about National Defence, the three branches of the armed forces, Air, Land and Sea, include 81,000 individuals, 20,000 civilians and 61,000 military personnel. Of these 61,000 military personnel, only 6,500 are privates. All the others are officers of the air, land or sea forces. For instance, there are 28,000 corporals for 6,000 privates. There are 6,000 sergeants. Higher up, above warrant officers and chief warrant officers, there are 1,487 lieutenants. There are 6,333 captains to supervise these 1,487 lieutenants. There are 2,938 majors and 66 generals.
This morning, the Minister of National Defence stated that morale was low in the armed forces. This may be one of the reasons. I can understand that the 6,500 privates must have no hope of a promotion because, out of 61,000 members, there are 55,000 people above them.
We have highly competent officers who have 6,500 privates working for them. Does that make sense? I would like to find out what my Reform colleague thinks of this whole situation.