Debates of May 15th, 2019

Department of National Defence—Main Estimates, 2019-20

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, climate change is real and we are seeing the impacts of it year after year, with floods and forest fires. Our Canadian Armed Forces are serving us extremely well, but we need to ensure we are ready. Canadian Armed Forces members will always be there in Canadians' time of need. Operation Lentus is how we respond to disasters.

In fact, I work very closely with the Minister of Public Safety. When it comes to our response, as members know, I need the request from the Minister of Public Safety for us to deploy personnel.

One thing I want to make very clear is that our Canadian Armed Forces members work quite regularly with the provincial emergency responsible so we can get an early idea of what is happening. By the time the request comes in, we are already ready to go, making sure we can respond to the needs of Canadians. We have been able to do this. However, we need to take climate change seriously, not only in Canada but around the world. Climate security is also a real thing.

[Serge Cormier, Liberal, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Madam Chair, our relationship with first nations is very important and our Canadian Armed Forces have a number of programs available to them.

Could the minister speak briefly about the programs provided by the Canadian Armed Forces for first nations?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, I am very proud of the work our Canadian Armed Forces are doing to increase recruitment of our indigenous youth. We have Bold Eagle, Raven and a number of other programs. I am going to be visiting one tomorrow at the Royal Military College as well. We want to reflect the diversity of Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, it is my pleasure to be here today. It is a first for me.

Most of our allies have successfully chosen new fighter jets within a year. The Liberals have been in power for three and a half years and have yet to hold a competition, which they have postponed once again, until July. I would like to know why it has taken so long.

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, I welcome the member to the committee of the whole. He also represents CFB Bagotville, one of our air force bases, where we respond to NORAD missions. I know he understands this extremely well. These planes should have been replaced by the previous government over 10 years ago, but they were not.

I am happy to hear that the Leader of the Opposition announced in his speech in Montreal that he would conduct an open and transparent competition to replace the fighters, something we have already started. I am very happy that this has been done.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, our F-18 fleet is aging. Everyone agrees that it is in the national interest to get a new fleet very soon . The longer the government extends the use of our F-18s, the more thousands of brave Canadians in uniform are risking their lives. It is no surprise that we have a shortage of pilots.

Does the minister realize that it is in the national interest to acquire a new fighter fleet?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, I could not agree more. These planes should have been replaced a long time ago. We now have the RFP for the requirements for future fighter competition, which will go ahead shortly.

We are committed to ensuring we get the aircraft that meets our requirements. We also have a number of initiatives to recruit pilots and mechanics as well. As I stated, this should have been done over 10 years ago by the previous government, but it was not. We are going to get it done.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, the Canadian government's policy on technological and industrial benefits recently caused some problems in the competition for new fighter jets.

The government knew full well that it could not expect Lockheed Martin to provide these benefits since Canada is a partner in the joint strike fighter program and signed a memorandum of understanding allowing Canadian companies to participate in manufacturing F-35s.

In light of the naive and reckless election promise not to buy the F-35, does the minister believe that this competition was fair, open and transparent?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, we are committed to having an open, fair and transparent competition. I am glad the Leader of the Opposition agrees with this. He said so in his speech last week.

We conducted a thorough analysis, talking to our allies, in defence of North America. When we looked at the number 65 that the previous government selected, we realized it was too low. It did not actually meet our requirements. This is one of the reasons why we increased the future fighters to 88.

The other thing is that even with the 65 number, the Conservatives did not even leave enough money for them.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, what does the minister think is the best fighter jet for the Royal Canadian Air Force?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, it is very important to have an open and transparent competition. Our department builds the requirements for this and then we allow the competition to determine which aircraft will meet our needs.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, if we were to ask Lieutenant-General Yvan Blondin for his opinion, does the minister know what he would say?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, we are committed to ensuring we have an open and transparent competition, something I am very happy the Leader of the Opposition agrees with.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, if we were to ask Lieutenant-General Michael Hood for his opinion, does the minister know what he would say?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, when it comes to open and transparent competition, our department builds the requirements and through those requirements, we will have a competition. We are committed to ensuring we have this competition. The RFP will be out shortly.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, I am asking these questions because some criticisms have been raised. People are saying that the Minister of National Defence is not listening to the very experts who have to work with the equipment he choses for them.

Why was Lieutenant-General Michael Hood, the former air force commander, not consulted about the main policy changes that led to the creation of a fake capability gap to justify the purchase of 18 Super Hornets?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, our government takes its military advice from the military. The military advice we get comes directly from the chief of the defence staff, who represents our Canadian Armed Forces.

Through our government process with respect to national defence, we create the requirements we want. Through those requirements, we pass off the process for the competition to the minister of procurement. That is exactly what is happening, and I am very proud of that work.

We will have an open competition to select the best aircraft for our air force.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, on February 23, 2017, 13 retired generals signed a letter to let the Prime Minister know that buying Super Hornets was a very bad idea.

Why did the minister ignore these 13 generals?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, as I said, these planes should have been replaced a long time ago.

We committed to an open and transparent competition. That is the way we wanted to do this. Unfortunately, we also have missions to fly, and the gaps that the previous government left us forced us to make sure we invest in our current fleet. That is exactly what we are doing right now, because, as I said, we have missions to fly.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute found that 67.5% of national defence experts think there is no capability gap.

Will the government finally admit that it invented this capability gap as a political ploy to cover up its own failings in defence procurement?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, right now we do not have enough aircraft to meet our NORAD and NATO commitments simultaneously. The 65 aircraft the previous government wanted were not enough.

We took a very thorough approach in our defence policy review to have a good understanding of the threats. That is why we actually increased the number to 88. It is a real number based on our commitments.

We are committed to an open competition so that we can pick the best aircraft for our air force.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, did the government originally propose to buy 18 new F-18s because it knew this would give Boeing an advantage in a future bidding process?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, I did not catch the question. I heard it but did not hear a question in that.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Madam Chair, I will repeat my question. Did the government originally propose to buy 18 new F-18s because it knew this would give Boeing an advantage in a future bidding process?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Madam Chair, we were faced with a capability gap, and we did not want to wait until the future fighters competition. We wanted to invest in our air force now.

This is one of the reasons we are filling this interim capability gap with aircraft from Australia. Currently, we are in the process of making sure that we modernize our legacy fleet while we have the open competition going on for the future fleet.