Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the government and all members, our hearts go out to the families of those CF members who died in the tragic Griffon helicopter accident.
However what the member is doing is shamelessly using this as a political tool. I will talk about the facts.
The Canadian Forces search and rescue system operates several types of aircraft on nine different bases in Canada. The Cormorant helicopter, which was acquired in 2002, the Buffalo and the Hercules serve as our primary search and rescue aircraft. However the Sea King and the Griffon are used in search and rescue as well.
The Griffon fleet is comprised of 86 helicopters that were purchased between 1995 and 1997. They have served the Canadian Forces very well here at home and all over the world. They perform a wide range of functions, including troop transport, casualty evacuation, surveillance, reconnaissance and, yes, search and rescue.
In addition to the capabilities offered by the Cormorant, the Hercules and the Buffalo, we use the Griffon to assist the Canadian Forces to provide a robust search and rescue capability across the country. The Griffons provide this valuable service, along with the brave men and women who operate those helicopters.
The Griffons and their crews are equipped and trained for search and rescue. I want to emphasize that under no circumstances would the air force deploy any aircraft in any type of mission that would put the members of our forces in harm's way or in any danger. We will not put choppers in the air if, in any way shape or form, we thought they would compromise the safety and capabilities of our forces and neither would the air force.
The 2002 Griffon crash occurred, and helicopters do sometimes crash, but we engaged in a long investigation of that. The recommendations from the investigation have been adopted by the forces and are being used in the private sector and by other countries. These include several preventative measures that were proposed by the flight safety investigation, including changing the tail rotor inspections and increasing their frequency. We are also looking at strengthening what is already a rigorous examination process.
The Griffon, along with all of our Canadian Forces aircraft, is subject to thorough examination before each mission. State of the art maintenance equipment is used and combined with a thorough inspection process.
The Griffon is a safe helicopter. The member across the way should be feeling very shameful at using this particular tragedy for political purposes.