Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak about the Bagotville base. I also spoke briefly about the Cold Lake base.
At present, two military bases, Cold Lake and Bagotville, have F-18s. The Cold Lake base is responsible for western Canada, as far as Winnipeg. The Bagotville base covers the remaining territory or eastern Canada. The two bases must cover roughly the same area but do not have the same number of aircraft. The Cold Lake base has 58 F-18s whereas the Bagotville base has 24.
Given that there is a training facility at Cold Lake, and that the Bagotville base is far away, would it not be better to balance out the F-18 fleet to better protect Canadian territory?