Mr. Chair. I am very proud that this government continues to stand firmly behind our armed forces. They deserve nothing less.
My question is for the parliamentary secretary of defence. Canadian Forces Base Petawawa has provided important contingents of Canadian troops to the Afghanistan mission. To date, some 2,000 troops from base Petawawa have been deployed to Afghanistan: 1,500 recently returned; another 500 began a tour of duty last month; and another 1,000 are due to go in August 2008.
The Ontario ombudsman launched an investigation in March, after receiving a complaint from the executive director of the Phoenix Centre, the only children's mental health centre serving residents in Renfrew county, and that includes CFB Petawawa, that the provincial government was failing to provide adequate mental health services for military children. The Phoenix Centre reported that the demand for psychological counselling had grown from just 2% of its cases to 20% since August 2006, and children were being forced to wait four to six months for treatment.
As the Phoenix Centre struggles to help children traumatized by their parents' deployment, an issue Canada has not had to deal with since the Korean war, many health staff at Petawawa worry that the challenge has just begun, not only in their community but for the military families and communities across the country.
What the Ontario ombudsman recommended was for the federal and provincial governments to sit down in an attempt to determine what was needed and how the costs could be split up instead of leaving it entirely up to the province. If this does not happen, the ombudsman has already warned the situation could easily revert to its initial stage and this would spell disaster to the Petawawa community. I am sure all members will agree we have a moral duty to provide the best health services possible for our children in support of their parents in uniform.
Would the parliamentary secretary of defence please inform the House of what the federal government is doing to assist provincial governments with military communities, especially with regard to the Phoenix Centre for Petawawa, and could he elaborate more generally on what support is being provided to military families?