Mr. Chairman, in conflict operations where there is high risk we will not send civilian personnel to do the jobs military people have done in the past. I mentioned that we have put people into Bosnia but the risk levels are lower. The Americans have been using this kind of support for some time as well. When certain occupations in the military are stressed it is particularly helpful to be able to give support through private sector personnel. However we would not send that kind of personnel into a place like Afghanistan which is a conflict zone.
The hon. member may also be referring to the Supply Chain Project which is the major alternative service delivery program we are proceeding with at the moment. We talked earlier about scarce resources and the need to use them on core military capabilities. That is what we are trying to do here. We believe we can enhance the performance of our supply chain from beginning to end by putting it together as a comprehensive entity. We can make it a better system all around. It is pretty good in many respects but we can make it better. We think we can save over $70 million a year. We made a business case with respect to that and the auditor general thought we made a good case.
On top of that, the company is a Canadian company. It has foreign ownership but so do a lot of Canadian companies with which we do business. The service provider has committed to making reasonable job offers to 100% of the permanent civilian employees affected by the project. The company is willing to guarantee employment for seven years. It will offer salaries equivalent to or better than what the employees got in the public service. Health, dental, disability and pension arrangements will all be provided.
A year ago when I was talking to the president of the Union of National Defence Employees he thought it was a great idea. He does not seem to think so today but he did at one time. That is because it is fair and reasonable in its treatment of employees. At the same time it will allow the government to save a lot of money and provide for an effective and efficient system. We will be able to put the money we save into our core capabilities to help relieve some of the stresses and pressures we have been talking about.