Mr. Speaker, most of my colleagues today have talked about poverty in Canada for all Canadians. However I want to speak to the issue of poverty in the Canadian forces. It relates directly to the motion:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should take steps to alleviate the burden of poverty in Canada—
This is a big part of poverty in Canada.
Like other members of the House I have served on the Standing Committee of National Defence and Veterans Affairs which spent the best part of last year studying the quality of life in the Canadian forces. “Moving Forward: A Strategic Plan for Quality of Life Improvements in the Canadian Forces” is a benchmark study and one that I hope the Liberal government will implement. What members of the committee heard was very sad, actually pathetic.
At one point in time there used to exist a kind of social contract between the people, their representatives, the government and the military. It existed for hundreds of years based upon a contract of unlimited liability.
The unlimited liability for those in the military profession meant that they would go off and fight and if necessary die when governments, the contractor, tells them to. In return, governments have given militaries a quality of life, their own special society and veneration when they retire or later die. There once was a quality of life, not poverty, but not with this government. To date it has broken its part of the contract.
Our soldiers, sailors and air crew go wherever they are told and do so outnumbered, ill equipped, if equipped at all, and uncared for by our government. They go without a whimper.
We must remember that this is the Liberal government that sends its soldiers to the army surplus store for boots and clothing. This is the Liberal government that sends its air crews on search and rescue missions with the Labrador helicopter or on flight training with parachutes that do not open. This is the Liberal government that says to the navy that there are no problems with the Sea Kings. Of course they are serviceable only 40% of the time and their mission systems fail at least 50% of the time.
This is the Liberal government whose Prime Minister travels all over the world offering the same Canadian military to whoever might want them, whether they have been asked formally, informally or not even asked at all, and without care or thought for their well-being. Last but not least, this is the Liberal government that sends military families to food banks and soup kitchens, poverty at its very worst.
This Liberal government has broken its portion of the contract. Shame. We hear the stories of military families going to food banks. It is heartbreaking to the hardest of hearts. We hear stories of sailors delivering pizzas at night to feed and clothe their young families. It is absolutely unacceptable. We hear stories of PMQs in such bad shape that one is afraid to go through the door.
Things just went from bad to worse when the Liberal government dispatched our military to far off places. People went from poverty with family support to abject poverty in some cases and with loved ones thousands of miles away and until recently with no support at all. Mothers are forced to shoplift for necessities. Then there are the injured from our peacekeeping operations that were abandoned. Lastly our veterans, some with benefits, some without like the merchant navy vets.
The anger and frustration the committee met on the road were incredible. I for one am changed by what I saw and heard. I would like to think that all of us were changed by it and for the better.
We came forward with a report, a blueprint to help the Liberal government deal with the problems of poverty in the Canadian forces. This was the committee's first priority and I hope it is the government's when it comes to the men and women in our Canadian forces.
We as a party want to see the quality of life study implemented but not through troop reduction or delays in much needed equipment. We can give a corporal a paycheque so he does not have to go to a food bank, but we cannot give his family his life back if he is lost in a Sea King helicopter.
The problems with poverty and the qualify of life in the Canadian forces are easy to solve. The problems are as clear as the solutions. In large measure the solutions involve something that has no monetary value, compassion. Sometimes it is important to say that we care. The solutions also involve the expenditure of money, about $700 million, but surely it must be worth it.
The committee recommends several improvements in the quality of life for military personnel, solutions that will ease poverty in a large measure if not eliminate it. There are some recommendations in the quality of life report which I think are key in fighting poverty in the Canadian forces and re-establishing a quality of life erased by the Liberal defence cuts. I want to paraphrase them quickly.
The pay levels for entry level ranks of private, second lieutenant and lieutenant must be increased by 10% no later than April 1, 1999. Reservists deserve a pension plan and deserve to be paid on time and correctly. The Department of National Defence should establish a global cost of living allowance.
The department should ensure that personnel at all bases have access to well maintained single quarters. The housing agency should provide adequate and sufficient services, including emergency repairs. The accommodation allowance should not be considered taxable income. The department should ensure that base housing remains suitable and affordable. There should be rehabilitation training for injured members of the Canadian forces prior to their release and a commitment to supporting military family support centres.
All these recommendations and the many more found in the report sound so natural, even logical, maybe a better word is expected, that people actually shake their heads in disbelief when we tell them that is not the case right now.
The men and women of the Canadian forces put it on the line for us every day, as do their families. They deserve our support and our compassion. It is time for the Liberal government to put its slash and burn policies behind it and do its part in giving the Canadian forces they require and deserve.
My party and I are also concerned about the plight of our veterans. We have veterans struggling to survive. They are living just below the poverty line and need assistance. We have all heard the horror stories of how some have been treated or their widows. It is an outrage. As Canadians I hope we do not have to start selling neckties and bow ties like the Gurkha Trust to help support our Canadian veterans. I hope it does not come to that.
As for our merchant veterans, we all saw those delightful old gentlemen sitting the steps of Parliament Hill fighting for what they deeply believed in, just as they had crossing the grey, unforgiving Atlantic. I hope they have not been starving themselves in vain. It is plain to every member of the House that there are veterans both recent and old living in poverty. It is a shame.
The Liberal government has a chance ahead of it to rehabilitate itself in the coming budget and give the Canadian forces and our veterans the money they need to have quality of life and to survive. This is the time for Liberals to move forward and bring in a budget that will allow the Department of National Defence to implement the quality of life study and to buy new maritime helicopters. This is the time for the Liberals to put a few dollars aside to compensate merchant navy veterans.
In conclusion the report called on the Liberal government and future governments to make a national commitment, a moral commitment to the Canadian forces. We must recognize military life is different and unique from civilian life. But just because they are trained for war does not mean they have to spend every day of their service lives and after until death in the trenches.
These measures I have talked about will ease poverty in the Canadian forces or end it. The 60,000-strong Canadian forces deserve better. I hope the Liberal frontbenches recognize that and redeem themselves in the eyes of the Canadian people at budget time.