Madam Speaker, I rise in this adjournment debate proudly as the member of Parliament for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, which includes Garrison Petawawa, Canada's largest army base. The over 5,000 soldiers at CFB Petawawa and their families know I have their backs when it comes to keeping the government accountable to provide the right tools at the right time to keep our soldiers safe in whatever task we call upon them to perform.
It is always in this context that I ask the Minister of National Defence to explain the discrepancy between the huge military budget cutbacks in every Liberal Party budget, and The Wizard of Oz response from the minister. In this case, the pot of gold is somewhere over the rainbow, which, according to this minister, will be after the next election.
It is time for the minister to ask the puppet master behind the curtain to give him some courage and confront the Prime Minister with the fact that funding is not needed 10, 20, or 50 years from now, but today. Based on the minister's actual response to a real question, there was no response.
The evidence for Canadians was the announcement of the Liberal defence policy, which was a bust for the soldiers serving today. The spending promises contained in the policy do not start until after the next election, and not surprising for me, the entire policy depends on the Conservative Party being elected after the next election. I urge all Canadians who believe that an independent Canada depends on a robust defence capability to vote for the Conservative Party, as we share that belief.
Military spending as a percentage of Canada's gross domestic product, or GDP, at .88% is at its lowest level since World War II. In the last federal budget, the Liberals dug an $8.5-billion hole, cutting the defence budget by $8.5 billion. They now state in their new defence policy that sometime after the next election, it will be up to a new Conservative government to take the defence of Canada seriously and actually implement the proposed defence increases. Meanwhile, the Liberals' deficit budgets are bankrupting the country. No wonder the Minister of National Defence was not prepared to answer my question in the House.
As the member of Parliament for Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, home to the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, I am encouraged by any promise to increase special operations forces by 605 personnel. The concern of the soldiers and their families who serve in our special forces is that the promises come with no time frame of when these increases will occur. It is no state secret that the government favours clandestine military operations, the kind that stay out of the media, so that the loony left wing of the Liberal Party is kept in the dark. This is the same loony left wing that demanded and got an $8.5 billion cut from today's defence budget.
CSOR is a battalion-sized, light infantry, high-readiness special operations unit, part of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, which is headquartered in CFB Petawawa. CSOR is capable of conducting and enabling a broad range of missions: reconnaissance, counterterrorism, defence diplomacy, and military assistance. Along with CSOR is the 427 Special Operations Aviation Squadron, 427 SOAS, in Petawawa. Our special forces soldiers are overextended.