Mr. Speaker, there are some constructive solutions we can adopt to make sure our military people have the ability to carry out their jobs.
To revamp their morale, make the accommodation assistance allowance non-taxable. Make it applicable to every person serving in our military. Roll back the rents to what they were in 1994 at the time their salaries were frozen.
Give the base commanders the ability to maximize the efficiencies on their base and get public works out of their hair.
Bring back the traditions within the military. Listen to the grassroots people in the military and allow them to wear their merit badges. Bring back the honourable traditions that have given them pride.
Stop penalizing the petty little infractions that enable them to have esprit de corps necessary for them to form a fused fighting force that will enable them to take care of the difficult activities they must engage in abroad.
Be hard on those who are engaging in criminal activities and be ruthless about eliminating them.
Take a look at the upper echelons of the military and make sure there are people there who are working for their soldiers and the grassroots and who are not people who are politicians in military garb.
Give our soldiers a clear direction as to what their activities are to be. They must not be ambiguous messages from the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Through the minister of defence make sure that the direction of our military people is very clear and precise. Ask them to do a task and they will do it, but make sure the message is not ambiguous.
Make sure we remember we are not training cub scouts, we are training individuals to go abroad and potentially engage in war.
Make sure we do not forget those individuals who are in civilian garb who operate and serve our soldiers and military garb in the department of defence. Many have worked for many years. They have undergone great cuts. They have engaged in efficiencies willingly and they have done a superb job of doing that. They need to be looked at, examine what they have done and do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. In doing that we may be adopting systems that would be less efficient for our military.
Let us remember that our tradition in our military is longstanding. Men and women have fought and died to make sure that we have a country that is strong and free.
Let us enable our military personnel today to engage in the honourable traditions of the past to engage in and fulfill our obligations abroad and at home.