Madam Chairman, the grants to the leagues who are our partners have not increased for some time. We have increased our funding for our support, as the defence department support, for cadet programs.
The budget cuts of course were put on all government departments and programs in order to eliminate the deficit. After those budget cuts stopped, the very first increase was some $27 million for cadet and junior ranger programs.
We have been able to improve a lot of the infrastructure. I have been to Borden and have seen over two or three years the improvements in the infrastructure there. I have gone to numerous other cadet camps and seen the kind of increases. We are now sending more cadets and junior rangers to summer camp programs. This is a great opportunity for them. It is a great opportunity to see the country, to be in contact with Canadians from other parts of the country.
Programs like that help in their youth development. They help to bring the country together with greater understanding of different people throughout Canada. They have been a great and very worthwhile investment. Certainly if I could, I would love to put more resources into programs like that .
I would love more resources for a number of other areas as well. As we go through the defence policy update let us look at all these different issues and the kinds of resources we could use to improve upon them.