Art Eggleton

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, as I have said earlier tonight, the mission of the Canadian forces is: first, to protect Canada and Canadians; second, to work with the United States in the defence of our continent; and third, to contribute to international peace and security.

We have an obligation to ensure we have the resources we need if we face any kind of disaster, natural or man made. One of the best illustrations of how we have been able to do this is the turn of the millennium when we were concerned about Y2K. At the time we had over 4,000 troops abroad, similar to what we have now. Yet between regulars and reservists we were able to pull together some 25,000 troops on standby in case we ran into difficulties with Y2K.

In 1998 during the ice storm we had almost 3,000 troops abroad, yet we were able to put 18,000 troops on the streets in our communities in Quebec and Ontario. We brought them in from different parts of the country. It is all part of the planning we do to ensure there is covering off for any units that are away.

We have a coming challenge with respect to Kananaskis where we would operate in a support role with the RCMP. Again, all these things must be taken into consideration when we plan overseas missions because we have the responsibility to protect Canada and Canadians and will continue to make sure we have the resources necessary to do that.

This is also a case where reservists become important. They are all over the country. During the ice storm people from reserve communities across Canada along with the regulars came into Ontario and Quebec to serve the needs of people in those communities. At the same time we had a substantial contribution abroad in peace support operations.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, this area has been a particularly tough challenge. We have a very strong reserve community support system. We have honorary colonels and we have regimental support units. The reserve units can be found in towns and cities throughout the country. For most people in Canada, the local armoury and the local units they have come to know are their contact with the Canadian forces.

We are below the strength that is in the white paper for our level of reserve members. In the current land force reserve restructuring, we are talking about the militia, the army in this context. We are attempting to increase those numbers. We have already reached the first phase increase. We were at 13,500. We said we wanted to get up to 15,500. We are either at or near that at the moment.

We also are looking at how to speed up recruitment. One of the things we have heard from the reserve community is the concern about how long it takes to become a reservist once a person signs up. We are about to get a breakthrough in that area and should be able to speed it up. We should be able to look at additional equipment and roles and things like that. Much of that will come in phase two. We committed to phase one some $758 million last fiscal year and there is $833 million for the current fiscal year. We have increased our allocation for the reserves.

We have a project office headed by a major general who is carrying out the land force reserve restructuring that the government has adopted. The government believes the reserves have an important role to play, whether it is the army, the navy or the air force. While much of our restructuring and focus at this point in time is on the army component of the reserves, they are all an important part of the Canadian forces operations.

We are now seeing increasing numbers go to our peace support operations. I believe we are up to 15% now. We are looking at sending a whole company size unit into one of our peace support operations, all reservists. This will be the first time we have done that. We are providing some of the additional resources they need in order to move up and take a bigger role in terms of our total force operations.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, the grants to the leagues who are our partners have not increased for some time. We have increased our funding for our support, as the defence department support, for cadet programs.

The budget cuts of course were put on all government departments and programs in order to eliminate the deficit. After those budget cuts stopped, the very first increase was some $27 million for cadet and junior ranger programs.

We have been able to improve a lot of the infrastructure. I have been to Borden and have seen over two or three years the improvements in the infrastructure there. I have gone to numerous other cadet camps and seen the kind of increases. We are now sending more cadets and junior rangers to summer camp programs. This is a great opportunity for them. It is a great opportunity to see the country, to be in contact with Canadians from other parts of the country.

Programs like that help in their youth development. They help to bring the country together with greater understanding of different people throughout Canada. They have been a great and very worthwhile investment. Certainly if I could, I would love to put more resources into programs like that .

I would love more resources for a number of other areas as well. As we go through the defence policy update let us look at all these different issues and the kinds of resources we could use to improve upon them.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, it is important that we have appropriate protection for our systems. These kinds of investments will help do that.

Certainly there is an increasing growth in asymmetric threats, the possibility of attacks, cyber attacks. We have seen the kind of damage hackers can do. At the same time it is an area that could be used in a more organized way by terrorist organizations. We cannot rule that out.

We have to make sure we provide proper protection, proper encryption and whatever else we need for protection of our systems. We added money to the last budget, which is here in the estimates, that will help protect our information systems.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, we are thinking ahead beyond getting the submarines fixed now.

Much ado is being made about very little in terms of the repairs that are necessary. Yes, there is some work which has to be done. As I said before, it is like buying a car. If there are some problems under the hood, they get fixed but the car is not turfed out as useless because that is not the case. The submarines will provide excellent service for us. They are a good bargain. We will do the repairs. What we can claim under warranty we will claim under warranty. I think I will leave it at that. They are a good buy.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, it is just a standard extension of what we normally do, the general tells me.

We do not have every kit or piece of equipment. However, we want to make sure that our troops have the appropriate protection when they go into harm's way, that we give them what they need in terms of their own personal protection and weaponry and that we have available what would be necessary to protect them in case of attack. That is a very fundamental part of the reason we pick certain pieces of equipment. That is something we have done for a number of years.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, I am trying to get the new figure with respect to the increase for the OCIPEP budget this year.

Apparently not. We do not have the authority to transfer other funds. As I have indicated, we have a challenge in meeting all of our needs with the funding levels that we have now.

I wanted to give a number but it includes another account so I will not give it. We have increased a substantial portion of the funding. The OCIPEP budget was part of the $1.2 billion that was allotted in the December budget.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, it is managed in co-operation with the provinces. We look to lever the money that is provided by the federal government with additional contributions coming either from the provincial or local level. It is provided through the office of critical infrastructure protection and emergency preparedness, OCIPEP.

OCIPEP took on all of the responsibilities that Emergency Preparedness Canada had and has added this component of critical infrastructure. It is also looking not only at natural disasters but at man-made terrorist type attacks, both in the physical form and in the cyber form as well. A key part of what it will do in future will be to work with the first responder community. This is an indication of where the priority is in terms of dealing with those kinds of disasters.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, we did increase it as part of the $1.2 billion. It went to the defence budget. Some of that went to the office of critical infrastructure, protection and emergency preparedness. Of those provisions there was a $10 million increase over two years for equipment purchases for first responders with respect to chemical and biological response systems. The JEPP program is a contributory program by us and by the provinces and much of the programming is done at the local level by first responders.

We have also provided for $20 million over five years for the development of a national heavy urban search and rescue capability. This again is through the JEPP program. Quite obviously with the events of September 11, there is concern about any major disaster in an urban area, whether it is man-made or a natural disaster, which could involve heavy urban search and rescue operations. While we had already been doing some work in that area before, we have accelerated it quite substantially post-September 11.

Those are two areas where money that is flowing through will go to the first responders level. There will be other programs as well, for example, training programs where we work with the first responder community, which is largely at the local level, municipal or other local entity and agency, to increase the capacity to deal with either natural or man-made disasters.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Chairman, the money is an estimate. It is hard to estimate natural disasters. We do not know when they are coming or the degree of severity. Who would have predicted in advance the ice storm when it happened, the Saguenay or Red River floods, to provide those kinds of estimates? However if any of these funds for the disaster or financial assistance arrangements are not used they go back to the central treasury.