Gordon O'Connor

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, according to the Afghan compact, the goal in Afghanistan is to have the army at 70,000 and the police at 62,000 by 2010-11. That is for the whole country. The conditions are different in different parts of the country.

One of the challenges with the police is that not enough attention was put on them a few years ago. The army is two years ahead of the police right now. There has to be a much more intense effort to get the police trained and supported.

Another thing is that the army is paid centrally. They get paid. The police are paid through the different provinces and somehow, something sometimes happens to the money.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I do not want to point out too harshly that the member's party was the government until the end of January this year. I could ask why they did not do something about it.

However, the reality is that we have five operational trauma and stress support centres across the country. One of them is in Ottawa. The Ottawa trauma and stress support centre services Petawawa.

As I pointed out before, not only does this centre look after them--and the member pointed out there are some people up in Petawawa--but it is part of a whole program of decompression on the way home and onward care. We have a program called operational stress injury social support. There is a support program also out there for people with stress. So in fact we do have a program.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, before soldiers go overseas they are screened not only physically but psychologically. They are given a test. When they return they are given another psychological test.

While a soldier is in the mission in Afghanistan, he or she gets a chance to come home on a holiday. That breaks the tension. Also, when units are rotating back to Canada, they also have time to lose stress over three or four days. Right now I think they are going into Cyprus, although I am not sure. They go to Cyprus to remove their stress.

As I said, they are evaluated on their return. They are also observed over time to see what kind of reactions, if any, the soldiers have. The families are involved. I could go into the whole process of how we look after soldiers with stress, but at this moment I will not.

The other part of the question had to do with family health care. As I said in the meeting the other day, the health care of civilians is a provincial responsibility. It is not a federal responsibility. The member can shake her head, but it is a federal--

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, the only number I can provide right now is for the defence department. Our incremental costs for defence are $2.1 billion. The member opposite would have to approach the Department of Foreign Affairs and CIDA to determine what their amounts are.

I meet these ministers every day. In fact, I meet every minister every day.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I am not aware of any use of mines on our side. However, as the member knows, the Taliban use Soviet mines to blow up and attack our forces on a regular basis. The only people using mines right now are the Taliban.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, my understanding is that there are no mines whatsoever around Kandahar airfield. The British airfield regiment defends the area, plus there are, at any one time, a thousand or more troops in the area so it tends to keep the Taliban away.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, the member opposite, by implication, is trying to say somehow that American pilots are evil or something like that. American pilots are part of NATO. They follow all the rules of NATO. We have complete confidence in them and in the British pilots, the Dutch pilots and all the other pilots there who follow NATO rules.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, off the top of my head I cannot recall what the protocol is, but I can assure the member opposite that all pilots are following the rules of engagement as approved by NATO.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, there is no ongoing process at this time in the sense of reviewing what we will do at the end of February 2009, not at this moment. That is the decision of the Prime Minister and the cabinet.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, before I answer that question I want to note that today is the 106th anniversary of the battle of Leliefontein. My regiment, in the year 1900 in South Africa, was awarded three Victoria Crosses on this day. I want to note it before the evening passes.

With respect to the question about wounded soldiers, not all wounded soldiers go to the American hospital in Germany. Many of them come home if they are in a condition to come home. Only the most seriously wounded go to Landstuhl to make sure that they are stabilized and are in a good enough condition to return to Canada.

As for when they return to Canada, as I said before, and I gave out statistics earlier today, the great majority of soldiers return to duty after medical treatment, but even those who return with medical treatment may have a disability, so we have two categories: some of them do not return to duty and some do return to duty who may have disabilities. They receive disability pay. They also receive lump sums of money depending upon the extent of their injury or their wound. We also have programs to look after them, to make sure they are cared for and to get them either returned to duty or returned to civil life. We look after them right through the process.