Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member on his maiden speech.
Regarding his remarks about the $1.6 billion budget for the military, I do not know from where he gets that. When we take out the funding for the federal emergency critical infrastructure program and additional mandates which are being given to the department of defence, what we find is an actual increase for the military of $200 million over four years.
The auditor general has said that there is an immediate need of over $2 billion for critical infrastructure right now for the military. The Conference of Defence Associations says it needs at least $2 billion per year. In other words, the government has put about 10 cents on the dollar on what has been defined by outside experts as an absolute minimum.
Michael Bliss, in commenting on the budget, said:
The $1.2-billion increase for the military over five years is unexpectedly small, little better than derisive tokenism. Canada's fundamental defence policy remains unchanged: Let the United States protect us.
Could the member comment on that?