Mr. Chair, it is my privilege to rise today with questions for the minister. I would like to begin by thanking the minister for his service. Certainly I respect the career he had in the Canadian Armed Forces. That experience is formative for someone serving in the capacity of Minister of National Defence. I want to thank him and recognize that at the outset.
I want to present a brief speech first before I get into my questions.
Many members of the Canadian Armed Forces, while very happy and proud of the minister's service, are indeed very worried about the future of the Canadian Armed Forces. They are worried about the capability, operations and equipment, and they have good reason to be. The parallels between the last majority Liberal government seen in this place and the current one are stark and startling.
In 1993, the election was dominated by the delay and eventual cancellation of the maritime helicopter replacement, which the minister is still talking about replacing because, quite frankly, of the misguided move in that election by former prime minister Chrétien in cancelling the Sea King helicopter. The year after the Liberals were elected, in 1994, they had a defence white paper to basically set up the future cuts to the military. I will quote the lines from that 1994 white paper. It ends by saying:
Indeed whatever the future brings, the new defence policy will enable Canada to respond and adjust as necessary to deal with the range of challenges to our security that could arise, now and into the next century.
We fast forward to the present government. The F-35 became the large procurement project that was used as a political football in a campaign. Then, a year after the current government assumed office, we will have a defence review, again setting up the circumstances for future cuts. In the launch of that review, the minister said:
The strategic security environment in which the Canadian Armed Forces operates has changed significantly.
That sounds very familiar. He continued:
I look forward to hearing from Canadians from coast to coast, as they help inform the...modern defence policy that will support the [Canadian Armed Forces] to effectively respond to a full spectrum of challenges--now and into the future.
It is the same language.
Of course, the road map to cuts is already there for the minister, because the chief government whip outlined in his transformation report, before he joined this Parliament, a guide to cuts to the Canadian Armed Forces. It is basically a 50% cut to class B reserves and cost-cutting measures.
With this comparison in mind, how can the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces trust that we do not see the beginning of another decade of darkness?