Art Eggleton

[National Defence, February 20th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, this is in fact what General Campbell and the air force staff have recommended. They are saying that because we can invest more in upgrading our equipment and putting better technology into the equipment so that we can get more efficiency out of it, we will get a better quality product and be able to do just as much patrolling as we were been able to do before.

Where they will save money and time is in the fact that they will do more on land simulation to train people in terms of flying. This will cut down on the number of hours that the aircraft are needed in the air.

[National Defence, February 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the 19,000 figure is wrong. The current number of hours is about 11,000. We are talking about reducing that to 8,000 in 2003-04, but that includes more than just surveillance. That includes the training hours.

With new equipment and new simulators we will be able to cut down on the number of hours spent in training in the actual Auroras and still be able to maintain the hours spent on surveillance and protection of Canadian coastal waters.

[National Defence, February 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to meet all our obligations in terms of the protection of the country and in terms of patrol and surveillance of our coastal waters.

We are talking about a reduction of five aircraft in the Aurora surveillance and patrol aircraft. We are talking about a reduction in the number of hours.

However, we are making that plane more efficient by the upgrades that will be put into it. That will in fact cut down on the number of training hours, but in terms of the surveillance capacity there will be no diminution of the service provided to Canadians.

[National Defence, February 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, we are investing in modernizing and upgrading our air force. More than half the number of planes that are being retired from service are being replaced by a public-private sector partnership arrangement whereby new aircraft will be brought into the system.

The Tutors will go out, for example, and in will come the Hawks and the Harvards as part of NATO flying training. That will be an even better service. The upgrades in terms of the CF-18s will make them among the best and most effective fighting equipment in the world. We are investing to modernize our Canadian armed forces.

[Water Contamination, February 16th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member should well ask his question of the government of Quebec.

They seem to have an embarrassment about asking their own provincial government about these matters. They were advised in April 1998. Why did they not engage the municipalities more in that period of time to get this problem cleaned up?

[Water Contamination, February 16th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated in response to the earlier question, we did take the responsible position, finding contamination on our property. We found it in the well. We do not know that the source is on our property. It could be on another property. We have in fact been spending a fair bit of money to try to determine the source.

Meanwhile, we provided information to the ministry of the environment of Quebec. It is its responsibility to then deal with the municipalities as indeed the minister has most recent announcement in which he offered filtration systems to the people who live in the community of Shannon. We will continue to co-operate with all parties involved in this matter.

[Water Contamination, February 16th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, it is not yet known what is the source of the problem in the town. There is also an adjacent property that could be the source of that contamination. We certainly brought that to the attention of the ministry of the environment of Quebec.

We will be doing everything we can to alleviate this problem. We have spent substantial sums of money to deal with this matter in terms of study and in terms of clean up. We will continue to take our responsibilities quite seriously. The ministry of the environment for the province of Quebec also has to do so in relation to the municipality.

[Water Contamination, February 16th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, when we received the report in 1998 we immediately passed it on to the minister of the environment of the province of Quebec. We knew there could be some problems on the base at that time. We have since taken action to study that further and are now taking corrective action.

We appropriately advised the minister of the environment whose ministry was responsible for this matter and for the municipalities that might have be involved, or might be involved, in April 1998.

[Auditor General's Report, October 18th, 2000]

Mr. Speaker, all those moneys were spent on legitimate purposes. This property is still in the ownership of the Department of National Defence. There are defence uses on that property. There has been for quite a number of years moneys paid from national defence for the upkeep of those properties to the corporation responsible for managing the entire site.

There was a sum of money that went through one of the accounts, a vote 1 account from parliament which was the wrong account. Funds have stopped going from that account. We have asked for a business plan, but the funds have all been spent on legitimate purposes.

[Peacekeeping, October 17th, 2000]

Madam Speaker, we have new Coyotes, new armoured personnel carriers and new combat clothing for an environment such as Eritrea and Ethiopia. We have provided so many new things to our troops that it is a very clear demonstration of our commitment to make sure that when we send our troops there they will be properly equipped. Parliament is being consulted on this occasion and will be consulted on many occasions with respect to meeting those particular needs.