Mr. Chair, I thank the member for Acadie—Bathurst for his tireless support and advocacy for the Canadian Armed Forces.
The 70% increase in our defence spending has allowed us to invest in the right capabilities. The appropriate capabilities allow us to make the appropriate contributions, because multilateralism is very important to our government, along with supporting NATO, which is part of my mandate also.
We are leading a battle group in Latvia, currently commanding a naval task group and leading the training mission in Iraq. There are three substantial NATO missions that we are currently leading. We have air policing right now in Romania plus the investments that we are making into the AWACS program, which is also extremely vital.
Taking a leadership role is extremely important. We set a great example for our allies. They see not only our contributions, but also an actual plan that will take us well into the future.