Madam Chair, of course that is not an increase in operating expenditures. That is an increase in capital expenditures and an increase in new projects. Therefore, my point still remains the same, that for the everyday jobs that people in the Canadian military have to do, there is not actually more money there. When it comes to things like the aging infrastructure of bases and the everyday maintenance tasks they have to do, there is less and less money available every year to do those.
I want to turn to the question of Mali, since the minister raised that in his remarks. I was fortunate to be part of the defence committee that visited Mali earlier this year. What we saw was what the minister talked about, the excellent work in medical evacuations that is being done by the Canadian Forces in Mali. However, it became very clear to us that Canada has made a decision to leave before our replacement in medevac services is available, so we are going to leave a gap from August 1 until October 15 when medevac services will not be available to the UN mission in Mali.
What we heard very clearly on the ground is that the work we do supports the MINUSMA forces. It is a stabilization mission. They are defending schools, hospitals, the food aid distribution system, aid workers and places of religious worship. They are trying to stabilize the country and prevent the terrorists from causing the collapse of the state of Mali. Therefore, when we remove our medevac services, what the UN forces told us is that it means that without air medevac they have to reduce the scope of their operations. Right now, they can operate 200 to 300 kilometres from their bases. When there are no medevac services like the ones we are providing, they will have to scale down to 20 to 30 kilometres.
While the minister talked about ISIS forces not occupying territory in Syria, we have had recent reports that they are trying to occupy territory in the Sahel. If we force the UN to draw down its operations, we will be partially responsible if ISIS forces manage to seize territory there.
Why is the minister refusing the UN request to extend the mission by just a few weeks so there is no large gap between us and the Romanians?