House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2000, with 67% of the vote.
Bosnia December 1st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, we made representations at the establishment of the contact group and for reasons I cannot explain Canada was not invited to be part of that group.
Certainly, even though we regret that state of affairs, that does not mean that we renege on our commitments to be an active full member of United Nations missions in Bosnia and Croatia.
Bosnia December 1st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister spoke to the French Senate today which is indeed an honour. I think he is the second foreigner ever to have addressed that body.
After the speech the Prime Minister was quite forceful in his desire for Canada to remain as part of the solution in the former Yugoslavia to help bring tensions to an easier point and to bring negotiations to fruition. Certainly he believes that Canada has a role, and I hope the Prime Minister has a role, to help in any new negotiating process.
Bosnia December 1st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, first of all, we regret that the Bosnian factions refused to meet with the UN Secretary-General. We are very sorry.
The Prime Minister has stated our position on the Bosnian conflict and this is the position which was stressed again this morning and this afternoon by my colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Right now, I do not have a report from these NATO meetings, since I am told they are still under way in Europe, but when I have an answer I will contact the hon. member.
National Defence December 1st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, in the red book we never discounted the need for search and rescue helicopters. We said that combat helicopters for ships would be studied in the defence review. The hon. member was part of a committee that recommended we buy new helicopters.
What is important is that the Conservative government wanted to spend $5.8 billion to develop a state of the art helicopter that we did not need and could not afford. The solution that we are proposing is going to save considerably more money, well over a billion dollars and perhaps $2 billion. That is not bad economics as far as I am concerned.
National Defence December 1st, 1994
Mr. Speaker, first on the procedural matter, it is customary for government to table responses to standing committee reports in the House. That was done.
I do not think it would have been within the normal practice to have given advance warning of that. However I did give a copy immediately to a member of the hon. member's party and the critic for the Reform Party immediately upon tabling, knowing that there were at least four hours before question period within which to reflect upon it.
On the specific point regarding the major capital purchases that have been called for in the white paper, it is very important to differentiate between the helicopter purchases required to replace the Labradors for search and rescue, the Sea Kings for the combat helicopters on ships and the armoured personnel carriers for the army from the submarine question.
The submarine question is simply a matter of investigating a possible arrangement with the United Kingdom that wants to sell four used conventionally powered submarines which would assist us in discharging our maritime mandate not just on the Atlantic coast but on the Pacific coast as well.
There is no commitment on the part of the government to purchase such submarines. Simply we are looking at the matter and we would have been remiss if we had not mentioned it in the white paper.
Committees Of The House December 1st, 1994
Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 109, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to the report of the Special Joint Committee on Canada's Defence Policy and the 1994 White Paper on Defence.
Bosnia November 30th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, if I could answer that I would certainly be a wise person.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister have made the point that Canada should have been part of that group. We are among the top contributors of forces in the ex-Yugoslavia. It is a shame and a disgrace that we are not part of that group. I hope the Prime Minister makes that point this weekend in Budapest.
Bosnia November 30th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been quite clear on Canada's participation in this very troubled mission and I do not propose to repeat it.
I subscribe to some of the points raised by the hon. member. We in Canada believe that obviously those detained should be released, that the hostilities should cease, that there should be a ceasefire, and that the Sarajevo airport should be reopened. We believe all of that and we believe that can be accomplished by negotiation.
We are very sorry that the Secretary-General of the UN was denied a meeting today. I would only hope that this is yet another bargaining ploy on the part of those who refused to meet with him and that they will get down to meaningful negotiations within the next few days.
Auditor General's Report November 25th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, in the last year there has been a virtual management revolution in the ministry of defence.
We are trying to have many services contracted to the private sector. We are trying to adopt many private sector methods such as in warehousing, in having on time just in time delivery where suppliers actually keep the particular components rather than having them stored. We are in the process of installing a state of the art computer system that will keep track of all of the components in the materiels group. Indeed, we have restructured the materiels group, which is the largest section of national defence, in charge of procurement and administration of all big capital programs. We have totally restructured that and in the next year there will be more and more layers of management eliminated. I think when it is all done the taxpayers will get better value for their dollar.
Auditor General's Report November 25th, 1994
Mr. Speaker, again I remind the House that the hon. member's party has called for a 25 per cent reduction in defence spending. This would have severe ramifications on operations.
As we know, the defence committee just issued a report. It is being studied by the government and a white paper will be issued shortly.
If the hon. member has details of how we could save money I would love to receive them. He could table them in the House or send them to me directly. However I doubt very much whether he would have enough projected savings to account for a 25 per cent reduction in expenditures of the armed forces. If we do that, it would certainly have a great effect, especially in his own province as in all other provinces.