Mr. Speaker, last March the Minister of National Defence confirmed that there was a pressing need to increase the number of men and women in our armed forces reserve. The minister then confirmed that the pay formula for reservists was, and I quote, “a locked in formula” at 85% of the regular forces pay rate.
Yet we now know that the minister has approved a 15% pay cut for some of our reservists and they were informed of it yesterday.
How can the minister possibly justify these cuts at time when we must recruit more reservists and when their help is needed more now than ever?