David Collenette

[National Defence, April 25th, 1995]

As often happens, the hon. member did not quote the full remarks I made on the television program, Mr. Speaker.

Obviously defence expenditures are not balanced equally across the country because of the staging areas that we used in the second world war and the fact that certain areas lent themselves to the building of infrastructure.

However I pointed out in the same program that the province of Quebec generally leads the country in its share of defence capital acquisition expenditures and probably will do so in the future when the new defence acquisitions are announced.

[Francophones In Kingston, April 25th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, education on Canadian military bases was the responsibility of the Department of National Defence until 1987 when agreement was reached to discontinue that. There have been accords with various provinces to phase out DND's role of being responsible for education.

It is the province of Ontario that is responsible for the school boards. It has made a decision which it considers to be practical. It is one which we do not agree with, in light of the discussions that have gone on in the House. To make the military college in Kingston a welcoming place for francophones is something I intend to take up with the educational authorities in the province of Ontario.

[National Defence, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, one of the things that consoles me every day is that I do not wake up every morning to look at the hon. member or his colleagues. I have my family around me.

As far as I am concerned, I do not want to minimize the problems in the Canadian Armed Forces. We are dealing with them on a day to day basis.

If the hon. member and his colleagues would take time out to visit the military bases, to visit the rank and file members, I will make all the arrangements for them. I will go with them. They can have access and they would find that members of the armed forces are very distressed at the line of questioning coming from that party.

[National Defence, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I answered most of these questions yesterday in reply to the leader of the Reform Party.

As I have said publicly on a number of occasions, I was not in full possession of the facts with respect to this individual. It is something that was very unfortunate and we regret it.

We will make sure in choosing a replacement for Ms. Doyle that we will find someone of equal stature. We will be a little more thorough in checking all aspects so that we do not have these questions emanating from the Reform Party. They are diverting attention from the very essential work the inquiry has to do.

[Canadian Armed Forces, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago I visited the base at Valcartier.

I saw many of the men and women in action preparing for their assignment. I specifically asked a number of them as to whether they had gone before. Some said yes. I asked: "Does it bother you to go back again?" They said: "No. We want the challenge to serve our country". That is the attitude of these young men and women who are serving our country.

The hon. member and his colleagues should start to rethink their strategy in trying to undermine the efforts of our soldiers fighting to establish world peace in the former Yugoslavia.

[Canadian Armed Forces, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member of the Reform Party is distorting what I said. I said yesterday that the suicide rate in the Canadian Armed Forces was lower than the suicide rate generally in the population of Canada and that is absolutely true.

I have acknowledged that there has been an increase in suicides specifically at that one military base. In response to my colleague from Charlevoix I gave the assurance to the House that we will try to get more information to see what causes are related to these specific suicides and the increase in suicides in the last 12 months.

[Peacekeeping, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised at the hon. member's comments. I believe 40 per cent of the troops now in Yugoslavia are from European nations. I would like him to make that statement to the ministers of defence and foreign affairs from Britain, France, Holland, Spain and other countries in Europe discharging their duties very effectively in that theatre.

[Peacekeeping, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, what a sad situation when the leader of one of Canada's political parties on the eve of re-engagement in Croatia and Bosnia, for which up to 2,000 people will be leaving their base in Valcartier, makes unfounded allegations about the nature of equipment and morale. I totally reject these assertions.

My parliamentary secretary has very kindly given me a copy of the special joint committee report. On page 29 there are certain criteria outlined adopted by the committee. His members signed on to that report. These criteria are followed by the government.

[Peacekeeping, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, every mission has to be viewed on its own merits. Obviously the criteria are somewhat subjective. It depends on the hostilities in question. It depends on the threat and the requirement made by the United Nations.

I would like to remind the hon. leader of the Reform Party that the special joint committee looked into this matter last year and made some very useful recommendations about peacekeeping in general, some of which have been adopted by the government.

It is important that we make sure before we go into any situation we understand the strategic reason for entering an engagement, the costs and the likelihood of success.

That is why when we engaged in Rwanda last year for six months we extended it by a few months. We have engaged in Haiti for six months.

I want to remind the hon. member the original commitment to Bosnia and Croatia was made by the previous government. I understand why it felt pressure to take part in that engagement. We have a difficult situation, one that is difficult to extract the United Nations from. It is a commitment we are prepared to continue indefinitely.

[Canadian Armed Forces, March 30th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, there have been increased programs that the departments have put in place in the last year or two at the various bases to deal with the stress of members, especially those who have been serving in peacekeeping.

If we look at the last seven or eight years, when Canada has been quite involved in peacekeeping assignments, the suicide rate has not increased abnormally and there is no established link between service overseas and suicide.

As I said yesterday, even one death is of concern to all of us and we will try to get more facts so that all hon. members can appreciate the true nature of the situation. If there is cause and effect, we will have to do something about it. I cannot categorically state that today, but we will get the information.