Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. It gives me the opportunity to continue on a little bit.
We have been talking all along about the fact that we really do not have the troops to send into Kosovo to start off with. Our troops are being rotated so often that they do not have a chance to get proper training. It is obvious they do not have the equipment. We keep harping on that but nothing is happening. This budget ended up giving zilch for equipment.
People watching the debate on TV might think that $175 million is a lot of dollars, but it is not really. It is $175 million for this year. We need $700 million just to come up even with our quality of life study without even talking about what is needed for equipment. There is no equipment upgrade in that.
The government is going to upgrade the CF-18s by selling off some planes in order to grab a little cash. The way we understand it, that is not quite by the book. It is not the way the government is supposed to operate. If the government is selling off planes, the money is supposed to come back to the general fund. Then it is supposed to apply for more budget if it wants more money for those planes.