Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. The defence budget is allocated for training personnel to make them effective. We had them in my area of the Okanagan fighting forest fires. We have seen them in action during the floods. Even the mayor of Toronto called on the Canadian Armed Forces for snow shovel activities this winter. Our Canadian Armed Forces should be in the public eye. They should be able to respond to disaster situations at home.
I encourage the member to continue to talk about that very important subject. We do not see enough of our Canadian Armed Forces personnel from coast to coast to coast because of base closures, militia reductions across the country and reservists who are no longer there. The latest numbers show that we probably have more young people in Canada's cadet activity with some 70,000 than we have regular force members serving the important needs of Canadians. That is a disaster and I would like to reverse that trend.
I strongly urge the government to look at increasing the budget and at creative solutions like the Canadian Armed Forces service exemption so Canadians can be proud of members of the air force, the navy and the army at home and abroad.
I urge all members of the House to urge the government, as I will be doing and have done over the past five years, to look at that issue very seriously. Once the military is gone we will not be able to replace it. It is something we have now that we can be proud of. It is an institution like the RCMP which encourages national unity. We are proud of the work our men and women do. I want to make sure we do not take a step back too far and lose what we once had as a proud tradition of the country.