David Collenette

[Bosnia, December 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, we share the hon. member's analysis. The Prime Minister has been quite explicit on the point that if the United Nations forces were to leave Bosnia and Croatia in light of the conditions of the last few weeks this would cause a great deterioration of the situation and we believe the bloodshed would be considerable.

That is the reason why Canada has steadfastly maintained that the only way out of this morass is for the warring parties to agree to continue negotiations, whether that be done through proposals submitted by the contact group or others or under the auspices of the UN in general.

The only way out of this situation is for the international community to negotiate with the warring parties in Bosnia and Croatia so we can bring some kind of stability to the region.

[Bosnia, December 7th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has made it clear that we are not prepared to withdraw our troops from the former Yugoslavia unless the arms embargo is lifted.

We believe the situation is extremely volatile. We believe that we, the members of UNPROFOR, the United Nations in ex-Yugoslavia, continue to discharge our mandate.

We are concerned with reports from some of our allies about a precipitous withdrawal. Obviously, and this has been raised before in the House by other members, NATO has plans that are being worked on should there require a withdrawal of forces. At the moment that is not Canada's position.

Next week there will be the regular defence planning committee meeting in Brussels which I shall attend, as will General de Chastelain, chief of the defence staff, and some of these questions will be explored in greater detail.

[Translation]

[Cornwallis Park Development Agency, December 6th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I can certainly give the assurances to my hon. friend from South West Nova who has worked very hard for the interests of his constituents after we closed the forces base at Cornwallis.

One of the things the government announced in the last budget was the establishment of the Lester B. Pearson Peacekeeping Institute. We want to make this a world class facility for trainers in peacekeeping techniques.

We hope to be able to divert more funding through bilateral arrangements with some of the eastern European nations and other European nations as a result of the readjustment of NATO infrastructure funds.

We are absolutely and totally committed to helping make that establishment a world class facility, but also to preserving many of the buildings on the site so that the hon. member and the local authority can market them and give that base a new economic life.

[Bosnia, December 6th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I do agree with the hon. member that it is very frustrating to have these continual assurances from the Bosnian Serbs. We had it on Friday when Mr. Akashi, the Secretary-General's representative, negotiated a deal with the leadership and only a few people were subsequently released. We hope that this latest negotiation will bear fruit.

With respect to the specific aspect concerning NATO air strikes, that framework was agreed to by NATO last spring. Canada is a signatory to that framework. Those air strikes can be utilized when and if the double key is unlocked, i.e., the commander on the ground advocates it and NATO agrees and of course the UN representative Mr. Akashi also agrees.

[Bosnia, December 6th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have been informed that a meeting was held yesterday between the UN commander in Bosnia, General Rose, and the Bosnian Serbs.

The Bosnian Serbs have given General Rose assurances that all detainees would be released soon.

That means we have had assurances from the Bosnian Serb leadership, Dr. Karadzic and General Mladic, yesterday in Pale when General Rose met with them that all of the UN detainees-there are about 350 right now-will be released soon.

[Situation In Bosnia, December 5th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, in Budapest the Minister of Foreign Affairs was stating the obvious and I believe a position all Canadians would support. That is that this country believes the only way out of the terrible tragedy which is unfolding in the former Yugoslavia is through a negotiated settlement.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs was expressing that optimism. I hope the hon. member shares it. If he does not I would like to hear the alternative from him.

[Defence Policy, December 2nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, there has always been in the capital program of national defence spanning a 15-year period the need to replace certain types of equipment. Those allocations were made.

Over the last number of budgets, including those of the former government, $21 billion has been cut off the projected expenditures for national defence, including a lot of the capital program.

We announced yesterday that we will be cutting $15 billion out of the capital program over the next 15 years for planning purposes. With respect to helicopters, I am surprised that the hon. member would make the assertion that we do not need to replace helicopters when he knows that the Sea Kings and the Labradors are coming to the end of their life.

Even if he does not agree that our state of the art ships and our refurbished destroyers should not have combat helicopters on board, surely he, from a province that has a coastline and uses the search and rescue facility, has to agree that the Government of Canada will be committing a grievous error if we did not make provision for new equipment even on the search and rescue end which is purely civilian.

[National Defence, December 2nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague, the Minister of Industry, will talk perhaps on a supplementary on the matter dealing with conversion specifically as announced in the white paper.

With respect to the capital purchases that we have announced, we do have in Canada the capacity to build armoured personnel carriers. One company has served the Canadian and foreign markets quite well, the General Motors diesel division in London, Ontario. Many components are built across the country including in the member's home province of Quebec.

In terms of the helicopters, I have to emphasize that while this could in all likelihood come from external sources, much of the work with respect to avionics, electronics and integrated systems probably would all be done in Canada because anybody who wants to sell to a country like Canada equipment of such cost knows that it is in the best interest of being competitive to source a lot of that work in Canada. I do believe that the equipment purchases will not have the effect the hon. member says.

Finally, with respect to the submarines, I covered that yesterday. This is simply a matter of exploring whether this is a good deal for Canada. That question will be looked at very carefully before a decision is taken.

[National Defence, December 2nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the only person who has ever called me the minister of waste is my wife and that has to do with the fact that I need to lose a few pounds. The running around we are doing in budget preparations and with the white paper will achieve that objective.

From cover to cover we talk about doing business differently in the armed forces. We talk about ending project management. We did in the last budget. We talk about buying equipment off the shelf. We talk about contracting out to the private sector a number of functions that are already being performed internally. We think we can do them much more cheaply. We have even mused about privatizing the operation and maintenance of the search and rescue function with Department of National Defence crews.

If the hon. member reads the report over the weekend I do not think he would ask this type of question on Monday.

[National Defence, December 2nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think the hon. member has read the report.

The white paper talks about improvement of administrative practices, of saving money, of privatizing certain functions such as maintenance and things of that nature, all of which have been advocated by the Auditor General over the years. In addition, administrative measures have been announced recently that are ongoing and meet the Auditor General's requirements.

On the question the hon. member raises about a so-called shopping list, the fact is, and let us be frank about it, we are either in the defence business or we are not. If we are in the defence business we cannot have our armed forces personnel ill equipped. There is agreement both in the parliamentary committees and across the country that we have to equip our armed forces better.

In the case of the armoured personnel carriers I do not think there is any argument that these are justified. In the case of helicopters we always knew that the search and rescue helicopters would have to be replaced. It is a civilian role, not purely military.

As to the question of the helicopters on the ships that is something that was recommended by the special joint committee and something we can fully justify.