Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague and I share similar views on this issue. He is right. That is the research I have done as well. I quoted one author who said that by this year it may well be that almost half the equipment that we own will have to be immobilized. It is so old that we cannot get spare parts for it any more.
That was not all of the problem. The hon. member raised another part of the problem which is that we are having trouble recruiting. I think we are having trouble recruiting because the members of our military do not have a sense of respect any more. They do not have a sense of respect because as a Parliament and a government we are not giving them the things they need to do their job.
We must give them the equipment and the training in order for them to do their job. Until we do that, we lose not only the respect of the people in the military, but we lose the respect of people around the world.
If we want to be a sovereign nation and be able to do our duty, whether it be in peacekeeping or peace making or even in combat around the world, then we need to take this seriously.
There is one thing that has surprised me very much. The government likes to get involved in areas of provincial jurisdiction, but in the one area that is so clearly an area of federal jurisdiction, it is delinquent. That is unacceptable.