Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on behalf of the brave women and men serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. Last June, I asked the defence minister if the Liberal government would reverse its policy to slash the housing differential for CAF members by 72% while increasing the rent by 5%. The minister responded to my question about rent by claiming that applications to join the CAF are up, that more women are joining, that the culture is changing, that they are buying weapon systems and that they are buying rifles. He then finished his laundry list by claiming that Stephen Harper left a mess.
The minister ran away from the question faster than a Russian soldier does from the sound of a drone. Having served across the aisle from the member for Ottawa South for over 20 years, I do not believe that his answer was the one he would have given had he been properly briefed. The minister's office had four months to draft a better answer. I look forward to the parliamentary secretary's response, where he will explain why Liberals are hiking rent and slashing the housing benefit. If I had to guess, he will try to avoid the rent issue and focus on the pay increase, a classic Liberal policy of giving five dollars with their right hand and taking $10 with their left.
For any Canadians wondering why the Liberals seem to always work at cross-purposes when it comes to the armed forces, I would encourage them to pick up a copy of the book Into the Breach: A Soldier's Journey. It is a memoir from former chief of defence staff General Wayne Eyre. A passage was published over the weekend in The Globe and Mail. In it, General Eyre recounts some of his experience in dealing with the Liberal government following the second invasion of Ukraine by Russia: “That began an exasperating two-year odyssey of strategic indecision and procrastination. As global security continued to precipitously decline, Canada dithered, readiness suffered and respect from allies evaporated further.”
At one point in the two-year mission to convince the Liberals to spend more on defence, the general considered writing a letter to the prime minister, documenting his concerns. The deputy minister for national defence advised the general that if he wanted to really get his message to the prime minister, he would need to make a placemat instead. This placemat would be a large piece of paper graphically depicting complicated information in an understandable manner. It is shocking to learn that the public service treated Trudeau like a child at a chain restaurant. Despite operation infographic, the prime minister was not persuaded.
The Prime Minister's Office asked for more reviews. More reviews meant more delay. The general described this as strategic indecision. The strategy is not the defence of Canada but the re-election of the Liberal Party. This is the exact same approach the current Prime Minister is taking with his never-ending review of the F-35 purchase. Nothing is actually being reviewed. The Liberals are just engaged in strategic indecision. The Liberals think that by withholding a decision on the F-35, they can use the purchase as leverage in negotiations that are not taking place.
The Liberals desperately want Canadians to think the Liberal government has changed. Meanwhile, it hikes rent for Canadian soldiers while paying $20 million in back rent for a slab of concrete it calls a spaceport, which it never used. The Liberals signed a 10-year lease on a concrete slab they call a spaceport. In Canada, renters typically have to pay first month's and last month's rent when moving into an apartment. What Canadians do not do is pay for rent 12 months before they move in, but that is exactly what the Brookfield government did. The Liberals took out a nine-year lease on a concrete slab and agreed to pay for 10 years.