Mr. Speaker, when I saw the wording of the official opposition's motion, I could not help but to think back on a couple of events, one just this past weekend in my home riding and one in the spring.
This past weekend we officially opened the new armouries, which is an interesting concept. The city of Windsor along with the Department of National Defence are jointly sharing the facility with our Windsor police services and the military, including a number of the reserve regiments that are based in Windsor and Essex County.
As part of that event, we had a number of vintage military vehicles as we did this past spring in an event that I co-sponsored with the mayor of the city of Windsor to recognize the veterans from our area who had been involved in the D-Day invasion 60 years ago. It gave us the opportunity to recognize the contribution they made to the country and to the world. As I read the motion, I could not help but think, as I did on both those occasions, that the government was still expecting our military to use those vintage vehicles.
I know that is a bit extreme, but the reality is we all know, and we saw so tragically just in the last few weeks with the incident on the Chicoutimi , that we have repeatedly placed our current military personnel at risk, sometimes when they are in training and sometimes when they are actually in the field.
To be very clear, the NDP, as I believe every party sitting in the House, believes that we can no longer do that. We should never have got to the stage we are at now. Even the government probably believes it and is now scurrying to catch up, but not as rapidly as it should be.
On the other hand, when I first saw the motion this morning, my reaction was that the official opposition was being somewhat misleading in the usage of the word. The official opposition says that we have to be combat ready. That is the ultimate resolution. We need to have that capability in the air, on land and at sea. The reality is that it will not occur.
It was interesting to hear one of the members talk about the report that came out of the defence committee about a year or 15 months ago. I read the report. It would have had the effect, if fully put into play, of more than doubling the budget that we spend on the military, from approximately $11.5 billion to $12 billion, as it was at that time, to something in excess of $20 billion, probably $22 billion, over a five year period. It would have got us to that level. The reality is the governing party would never take us to that level.
What we are faced with is very clear. We have been arguing for this for quite some time. We have to make decisions as to what we will provide by way of a military budget and the services that will flow from that. For ourselves, once the decision is made, the money is spent and the services are in place, the absolute number one criteria always is that none of our personnel should be put at risk with faulty equipment, equipment that is not up to the job that we are asking them to do.
Does that means that when we have to look at replacements, as we really do now with the CF-18s, we will replace them? We will have to make choices. I do not believe any political party or the Canadian government is capable of spending the money that we would need to absolutely protect us. It is just not there, and we have to make choices. The only way we can make those choices is if the government finally comes to its senses and does a meaningful review of defence policy for the country.
It is not just about being combat ready. It is about having military facilities, services, equipment and the accompanying personnel to defend the north, to extend our sovereignty clearly there, and to rebuff the claims that are being made by other countries. I was unbelievably sad when we looked at the small contingent that went north in the last few months and the problems it ran into. It was a very small contingent, we did not have the proper equipment for it and we put some at risk.
The equipment that was in Afghanistan, when we lost some of our troops, was clearly not adequate. Whether it was the communications or the transport vehicles, we put them at risk and we suffered casualties as a result.
As is so often the case with the official opposition, the simplicity with which it approaches this and expects other parties to accept, almost boggles the mind. It is not that simple. Had the motion called for a meaningful review of our defence policy, establishing a meaningful defence policy in the country, it would have received all party support. As my colleague from Churchill indicated, the opposition is playing games and the end result of that is to attempt to lead the Canadian public to believe that the motion has some meaning. It does not.
It was interesting to listen to some of the questions the NDP has been asked today such as what would it spend. It is inappropriate and in fact verging on irresponsible to answer that question before that policy is completed, before we make the decision on how much we will commit to peacekeeping, peace making and traditional combat roles. The official opposition does not have the answer to that because there is no policy. We do not know. Of course the government has been schizophrenic on this for years.
I want to make one final point with regard to the integrity behind the motion. Both Conservative and Liberal governments have cut our forces. They have put us in the position we are today. We do not have a public policy that is meaningful and is something we can follow. It is one that both parties, Conservative and Liberal, have an absolute responsibility to bring before the House, get the review done and get that policy in place as rapidly as possible.