Mr. Speaker, for seven years the government has watched while the combat capability of our armed forces went into decay.
First the government produced a white paper and then refused to fund the forces to fulfil their missions. Then it began to slash personnel levels to a point where they can no longer even function as a force because they have been overtasked. They had to sell off aircraft and they mothballed ships.
When will the minister acknowledge that the infusion of $2 billion over four years is not enough to stop the bleeding or avoid the eventual collapse of the Canadian armed forces?