Madam Chairman, one always knows that in the cut and thrust of debate and question period all sorts of things are said. He would have to answer for himself but I think we responded to those concerns.
Can I take up the member's entire 20 minutes? I could go back and read my whole speech all over again.
Yes, there were cuts to the budget because we had to eliminate the deficit. Everybody had to absorb budget cuts. Unfortunately for the Canadian forces and the department of defence, they were coming on top of budget cuts that were already made by the Tories when they were in office.
However we have turned a corner. For the last four years we have increased the budget by 20%. We have another $5 billion coming over the next five years or $700 million a year as his colleague pointed out earlier. Either way, it is correct. We are investing more.
We have talked about the quality of life measures. We have talked about the upgrades to equipment, the improvements to the training and the educational programs. These are all ingredients that are necessary to give the kind of support we need to give to our forces in what we ask them to do.
We will not ask our forces to go to Afghanistan or Bosnia or anywhere else unless we give them what they need to protect themselves, to reduce the risk factors while they are in that theatre of operation and to do the job.