Art Eggleton

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Mr. Chairman, I have said on many occasions that hard choices will have to be made. The hon. member is reading historic data, much of which could be very irrelevant as we go through a review process. We have to go through a review process because it has been eight years since the defence policy was put in place through the white paper of 1994. There are a lot of changes that have occurred in that period of time. There are a lot of changes that continue to occur.

There is a resource challenge. I have said on many occasions that we need additional resources, that we need to put our books in balance with our programs and that we need to have our resources equal the program. We are going through the course of doing that now. The army is going through a transformation on an interim basis while we also go through this update of our policy. These are all matters that are attended to now.

He can read a lot of historic data but a lot of it could prove to be irrelevant in the future.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

I think that is a relevant question, Mr. Chairman, because we are now in a period of time where we are doing a review of the capabilities and review of what kind of program we will provide in the future. The army is going through a transformation. I could not say at this point in time, because we have not made all the determinations as to what we will be doing in the next five years. We are in review of these matters.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Mr. Chairman, I disagree with what General Jeffery has said. In fact General Jeffery is trying to ensure that the budget for the army is balanced with the programs and services that it will provide. He is presently going through an army in transformation project to bring that about.

As I indicated before, yes, there are resource challenges and there needs to be changes. That is part of why we are doing a defence update. Also at the same time, and even in advance of that, General Jeffery, the commander of the army, is undertaking reforms to bring those matters into balance.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

It is about $700 million more, but it is estimates to estimates.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Mr. Chairman, the situation is that there is a challenge in terms of the resources. I said that on many occasions. I could not tell the member the precise figure at this point in time. It is one reason why we are doing a defence review update; to look at all these capabilities and to look at what is affordable.

There is no doubt that we have a larger program right now than for which we have resources. That has been said on many occasions. I cannot quantify it very specifically at this point in time. There have been many different estimates. That is one estimate but that was taken some time ago.

These circumstances change quite frequently, particularly with the additional amount of money that the government provided this year. When it came to the budget in December, $7.7 billion went into security measures and $1.2 billion of that over five years came to the Department of National Defence.

A lot of these changes have been made since the auditor general made her estimate. I will agree, as I said on many occasions, that there are challenges with respect to the resources to this department.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

The $5 billion is relevant to the full period of time. Therefore, if we take it on a year over year basis, yes, we could rationalize the figure of $700 million.

The shortage the member referred to, shortage in terms of what?

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Mr. Chairman, the Conference of Defence Associations did not prepare the budget. There are many different ways of calculating the figures. I am sure that if the member had told me in advance exactly what information he was looking for then we could have provided it, but carry on and we will answer the questions.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

That amount of money is being added over a five year period of time.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

To the base over the next five years, Mr. Chairman.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Mr. Chairman, $5 billion over the next five years is being added to the departmental budget.