David Price

[National Defence, February 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, last week I attended joint committee information sessions on Kosovo.

At this time we already have 2,000 people taking part in foreign operations, and it was explained to us that deployment of a new tactical group to Kosovo would stretch us to the breaking point.

My question is for the Minister of National Defence. While the 1994 white paper states that Canada must be capable of deploying 10,000 at a time, how can it be that we will be stretched to the breaking point if we deploy another 1,200 soldiers to Kosovo?

[Armenians, February 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Scarborough—Agincourt for bringing this important matter to the House of Commons.

One of the great tragedies of World War I was the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman empire. It is another sad episode in the history of modern warfare.

Prior to the wars of the French Revolution in 1792, war was very much a matter of battle between opposing armies. Few civilians were ever killed. There were episodes in every war where cities were sacked and women assaulted after decisive battles outside of city gates, but few civilians were killed.

The wars of the French Revolution changed all that. The past pattern of warfare between small professional standing armies came to an end when the French instituted the conscription of troops in 1793 to fight the Austrians and their allies. The days of the small professional armies manoeuvring across country and only giving battle to punish a strategically placed inferior opponent were over with. Henceforth armies were large, unwieldy mobs of civilians in uniform trying to kill each other and battle was given quite freely.

The advent of the industrial revolution just made warfare far more deadly and machine dependent. Due to the combination of conscription and the industrial revolution, the foundation of a nation's military strength changed. By the 1850s the true foundation of a nation's military strength had begun to rest on the size of its civilian population and its industrial infrastructure. Modern warfare was born.

It took almost the next 100 years to perfect it to a point where in World War II one could argue that civilians and industrial infrastructure had become the real targets. That is the real evil of modern war. In World War I, 20 million people were killed, the majority being soldiers, but in World War II, 50 million people were killed, the majority now being civilians.

Many Canadians know the horrors of the Holocaust and the evils of Nazism, but few Canadians know of the misfortune of the Armenians butchered because they were stuck between the Ottoman empire and the Russians. The decaying Ottoman empire found them to be a threat. The Armenians were an industrious, energetic Christian community awash in an Ottoman Turkish sea. Out of a population of two million Armenians, one and one-half million were killed.

The massacre of civilian populations has always been the ugliest aspect of modern war. The Armenians suffered from what today would be termed ethnic cleansing. The survivors escaped into Russia or faced forced resettlement. Indeed the Geneva protocols were brought forward by like-minded nations to protect civilian populations like the Armenians from the ravages of war. Later the League of Nations attempted to protect civilian populations between the wars. After the second world war, the United Nations took on the challenging job of trying to prevent war and protect civilians.

The terrible truth is that even though we see ourselves as more civilized than our forefathers on this planet, we are not. Every day we hear of the terrible human cost of modern war: Rwanda, Burundi, Bosnia, Croatia, and now Kosovo; where ethnic groups are the targets of the most reprehensible acts known to mankind, places where Canada has always dispatched peacekeepers and peacemakers to end these brutal practices.

Canada sent troops to Rwanda under the command of the United Nations and led by a Canadian, a brave Canadian, Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire. They were forced to witness one of the worst episodes in man's inhumanity to man.

Canadians were also in the former Yugoslavia, in Bosnia and Croatia and again witnessed unspeakable atrocities, atrocities similar to what one and a half million Armenians suffered. In Sarajevo a group of Canadians led by General Lewis MacKenzie distinguished themselves at an airport trying to help the unfortunate in Bosnia. Again outside a small village in Croatia, in an area known as the Medak Pocket, Canadians attempted to put a stop to ethnic cleansing.

Unfortunately for Canada's badly neglected military, they will likely find themselves soon in Kosovo trying again to protect civilians from harm. Canada has always stood up for those who need our assistance and who could not protect themselves.

The fact that wars, horrible wars, both state on state and state on sub-state or ethnic group continue on this planet is the key reason that the Government of Canada must commit some of its coming budget surpluses to its neglected, cut to the bone military. Indeed, the government must re-equip our forces so that Canada will be able to play a more important role on the world stage in trying to stop the horrors of war and ethnic violence.

The fact that the Armenian people suffered at the hands of a dying empire between 1915 and 1918 is of great sadness to all in this House and to all Canadians. Armenian Canadians have contributed greatly to the fabric of Canadian society and culture and we are all richer for that. It is only fitting that we remember them here today below the chimes of the Peace Tower, and that we take steps to prevent this past tragedy and other inhumanities from ever taking place again.

[Supply, February 11th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, we have gone through this quality of life study. It is probably one of the best things this government has done in a long time and the interesting thing about it is that the Liberal backbenchers who were sitting on that committee agreed with it totally. We were able to put in different amendments. They even agreed with the amendments.

We have a solid document in front of us, something that will help out our armed forces. So I think we should follow through with the quality of life report.

[Supply, February 11th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for the question.

We have to look at all vets who have done anything for this country. They have to be taken care of. We have put them aside for far too long.

[Supply, February 11th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, most of my colleagues today have talked about poverty in Canada for all Canadians. However I want to speak to the issue of poverty in the Canadian forces. It relates directly to the motion:

That, in the opinion of this House, the government should take steps to alleviate the burden of poverty in Canada—

This is a big part of poverty in Canada.

Like other members of the House I have served on the Standing Committee of National Defence and Veterans Affairs which spent the best part of last year studying the quality of life in the Canadian forces. “Moving Forward: A Strategic Plan for Quality of Life Improvements in the Canadian Forces” is a benchmark study and one that I hope the Liberal government will implement. What members of the committee heard was very sad, actually pathetic.

At one point in time there used to exist a kind of social contract between the people, their representatives, the government and the military. It existed for hundreds of years based upon a contract of unlimited liability.

The unlimited liability for those in the military profession meant that they would go off and fight and if necessary die when governments, the contractor, tells them to. In return, governments have given militaries a quality of life, their own special society and veneration when they retire or later die. There once was a quality of life, not poverty, but not with this government. To date it has broken its part of the contract.

Our soldiers, sailors and air crew go wherever they are told and do so outnumbered, ill equipped, if equipped at all, and uncared for by our government. They go without a whimper.

We must remember that this is the Liberal government that sends its soldiers to the army surplus store for boots and clothing. This is the Liberal government that sends its air crews on search and rescue missions with the Labrador helicopter or on flight training with parachutes that do not open. This is the Liberal government that says to the navy that there are no problems with the Sea Kings. Of course they are serviceable only 40% of the time and their mission systems fail at least 50% of the time.

This is the Liberal government whose Prime Minister travels all over the world offering the same Canadian military to whoever might want them, whether they have been asked formally, informally or not even asked at all, and without care or thought for their well-being. Last but not least, this is the Liberal government that sends military families to food banks and soup kitchens, poverty at its very worst.

This Liberal government has broken its portion of the contract. Shame. We hear the stories of military families going to food banks. It is heartbreaking to the hardest of hearts. We hear stories of sailors delivering pizzas at night to feed and clothe their young families. It is absolutely unacceptable. We hear stories of PMQs in such bad shape that one is afraid to go through the door.

Things just went from bad to worse when the Liberal government dispatched our military to far off places. People went from poverty with family support to abject poverty in some cases and with loved ones thousands of miles away and until recently with no support at all. Mothers are forced to shoplift for necessities. Then there are the injured from our peacekeeping operations that were abandoned. Lastly our veterans, some with benefits, some without like the merchant navy vets.

The anger and frustration the committee met on the road were incredible. I for one am changed by what I saw and heard. I would like to think that all of us were changed by it and for the better.

We came forward with a report, a blueprint to help the Liberal government deal with the problems of poverty in the Canadian forces. This was the committee's first priority and I hope it is the government's when it comes to the men and women in our Canadian forces.

We as a party want to see the quality of life study implemented but not through troop reduction or delays in much needed equipment. We can give a corporal a paycheque so he does not have to go to a food bank, but we cannot give his family his life back if he is lost in a Sea King helicopter.

The problems with poverty and the qualify of life in the Canadian forces are easy to solve. The problems are as clear as the solutions. In large measure the solutions involve something that has no monetary value, compassion. Sometimes it is important to say that we care. The solutions also involve the expenditure of money, about $700 million, but surely it must be worth it.

The committee recommends several improvements in the quality of life for military personnel, solutions that will ease poverty in a large measure if not eliminate it. There are some recommendations in the quality of life report which I think are key in fighting poverty in the Canadian forces and re-establishing a quality of life erased by the Liberal defence cuts. I want to paraphrase them quickly.

The pay levels for entry level ranks of private, second lieutenant and lieutenant must be increased by 10% no later than April 1, 1999. Reservists deserve a pension plan and deserve to be paid on time and correctly. The Department of National Defence should establish a global cost of living allowance.

The department should ensure that personnel at all bases have access to well maintained single quarters. The housing agency should provide adequate and sufficient services, including emergency repairs. The accommodation allowance should not be considered taxable income. The department should ensure that base housing remains suitable and affordable. There should be rehabilitation training for injured members of the Canadian forces prior to their release and a commitment to supporting military family support centres.

All these recommendations and the many more found in the report sound so natural, even logical, maybe a better word is expected, that people actually shake their heads in disbelief when we tell them that is not the case right now.

The men and women of the Canadian forces put it on the line for us every day, as do their families. They deserve our support and our compassion. It is time for the Liberal government to put its slash and burn policies behind it and do its part in giving the Canadian forces they require and deserve.

My party and I are also concerned about the plight of our veterans. We have veterans struggling to survive. They are living just below the poverty line and need assistance. We have all heard the horror stories of how some have been treated or their widows. It is an outrage. As Canadians I hope we do not have to start selling neckties and bow ties like the Gurkha Trust to help support our Canadian veterans. I hope it does not come to that.

As for our merchant veterans, we all saw those delightful old gentlemen sitting the steps of Parliament Hill fighting for what they deeply believed in, just as they had crossing the grey, unforgiving Atlantic. I hope they have not been starving themselves in vain. It is plain to every member of the House that there are veterans both recent and old living in poverty. It is a shame.

The Liberal government has a chance ahead of it to rehabilitate itself in the coming budget and give the Canadian forces and our veterans the money they need to have quality of life and to survive. This is the time for Liberals to move forward and bring in a budget that will allow the Department of National Defence to implement the quality of life study and to buy new maritime helicopters. This is the time for the Liberals to put a few dollars aside to compensate merchant navy veterans.

In conclusion the report called on the Liberal government and future governments to make a national commitment, a moral commitment to the Canadian forces. We must recognize military life is different and unique from civilian life. But just because they are trained for war does not mean they have to spend every day of their service lives and after until death in the trenches.

These measures I have talked about will ease poverty in the Canadian forces or end it. The 60,000-strong Canadian forces deserve better. I hope the Liberal frontbenches recognize that and redeem themselves in the eyes of the Canadian people at budget time.

[Kosovo, February 9th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, in an answer to my question about Kosovo yesterday the Minister of National Defence said that Canada had not been formally asked for ground troops.

Has Canada been informally asked for ground troops for Kosovo? If so, who and when?

[Kosovo, February 9th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, we learned this morning that peace negotiations on Kosovo are in jeopardy.

Did the Prime Minister consult the Minister of National Defence before making his announcement in Switzerland, as to whether or not Canada could send to Kosovo troops that are well trained and well equipped?

[Kosovo, February 8th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, my question again is for the Minister of National Defence. Why is Canada's Prime Minister offering troops at a time when we are not capable of equipping, deploying or supporting in a situation like the one in Kosovo?

[Kosovo, February 8th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, according to recent news reports, Canada is prepared to provide ground forces for Kosovo.

My question is for the Minister of National Defence. Has Canada been invited to provide troops, and if so, when and by whom?

[National Defence, December 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, again I urge the minister to be a little more earnest with Canadians.

One year ago a news helicopter had to rescue survivors of a plane crash in northern Manitoba. Again this past Monday, survivors of a plane crash in Quebec had to be rescued by another private helicopter.

Why will the minister not provide search and rescue helicopters that our professional forces can use and rely on every day? Or is he satisfied with depending on the goodwill of others?