Mr. Speaker, the government says it is capable of helping the United States militarily in the war against terrorism. That is fiction. Yesterday's United Nations report and today's Conference of Defence Associations report prove we cannot meet our international obligations. That is fact.
Canada lags behind Belgium, the Netherlands and even tiny Bulgaria with only eight million people. Our military has shrunk from 80,000 to 50,000 troops, which shows that we can only send a maximum of 14,000 into combat. That is not enough to sustain a brigade for even six months.
Half our CF-18 planes cannot get off the ground because their electronics are obsolete. They cannot integrate with American pilots. We do not have enough soldiers to meet our domestic needs let alone our international obligations.
The reason for this is that our military has been gutted and used as a political punching bag by the government, which has compromised the security of all Canadians.