Mr. Speaker, 60 years ago, on December 17, 1939, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand joined together in Ottawa to sign the British Commonwealth air training plan agreement.
A significant milestone for Canada, the air training plan became one of the first symbols of our country's participation in the second world war and was certainly one of Canada's most important contributions to the ultimate victory.
Between 1940 and 1945 Canada became known as the aerodrome of democracy, as 107 air training facilities were established across the country to train more than 130,000 air and ground crews. Many of them paid the ultimate price, fighting for the causes of freedom, international peace and human dignity.
In many senses the training plan laid the foundation of our longstanding co-operation with our allies on the European continent and elsewhere around the world.
Today the tradition of training the world's best aviators lives on with the government's commitment to the innovative NATO flying training in Canada program.