Dan Albas on Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL

In the House of Commons on February 22nd, 2016. See this statement in context.

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISILGovernment Orders

February 22nd, 2016 / 11:05 a.m.

Conservative

Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this member's intervention. However, on this side we disagree with many aspects of this motion.

One aspect that is important to note is that in a briefing on December 17, we had Canadian Armed Forces officials saying that the CF-18s provided cover when there were hundreds of ISIL soldiers attacking our position outside of Mosul. They were able to use the CF-18s to provide the needed air cover, and because the CF-18s were under Canadian command, they could immediately get that help.

Now we find out that that there are four Griffon helicopters there which can be used to medically evacuate people. Is this not a tacit admission that our troops may be more vulnerable and require medical evacuation capability because they do not have the required air support on call?

See context to find out what was said next.