Mr. Chairman, the minister is saying that this is March madness and the government did not plan. Although it has equipment shortfalls in many, many areas what he is telling us is that the government forgot to plan to spend $100 million on things that are necessary like uniforms for instance.
He is saying that is not true, but clearly the government had not properly planned. It knew it had some extra money at the end of the year, but chose not to spend it on things that were essential to the well-being of the Canadian forces, some of whom are in combat situations right now and many of whom are in peacekeeping situations. Instead he said at the end of the year “We have some money laying around so let us spend it on really what amounts to a luxury, Challenger jets”, at a time when it did not need to spend money on them. We know the other ones were perfectly suitable for getting the minister around the country and around the world. Instead the government chose to spend the money on an upgrade, on really what is a luxury.
Again, I argue that if the government had planned properly, that money would have been spent on things that were important like uniforms, communications equipment and the basic necessities our troops so often lack no matter where they go in the world.