Gordon O'Connor

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, as I told the hon. member, the committee and others publicly, we will ensure that our soldiers who are wounded are not in any way deprived of the allowances that they would otherwise get, but what we cannot do is mix up high risk pay or high risk allowances with this other initiative, because we have to stay constant. If they are in a high risk area, they get the risk allowance. If they are not in the high risk area, they do not get the high risk allowance. We have to stay firm with that. Otherwise, it opens up an endless appeal process.

What I had promised to do and what we will do is that we will ensure that every wounded soldier, if wounded before the time that they were normally to return to Canada, will be compensated. We are just trying to determine the best way to do it.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, before I answer that, I am going to answer the Excalibur question. Apparently we are going to receive three rounds for trial. We have no rounds. That is correct. We have none. We are going to receive three rounds for trial in the next few weeks, and the plan is, in February 2007, to acquire 27 more rounds if these three rounds work out. It is correct at the moment that we have no rounds.

With respect to the cost of the mission, as I said before, the incremental cost of the mission to date is $2.1 billion for the military. I cannot speak for the other parts of the mission. Every soldier we have sent there and every piece of equipment that we have put there is part of the military inventory. They are to be employed elsewhere. So when the member asks me the cost of mission in Afghanistan, the member gets what it costs us to do the mission in Afghanistan, which is $2.1 billion to date, since the beginning of the mission back in 2002.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I am advised that if we have the shells, and when we had the shells, they would cost about $150,000 each.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, we in fact have a considerable amount of troops committed to UN missions. The Afghan mission is a UN mission. It is a UN-mandated mission. There has not been any reduction in the amount of forces or the proportion of forces that we are committing to UN mandated missions.

With respect to the classic peacekeeping missions, there are very few of these left in the world today. It seems that countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria are countries that send a lot of troops to these missions, whereas, as the member opposite said, most European countries, the Americans and our country restrict ourselves to more challenging missions.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, our government is committed to addressing veterans' problem with agent orange but if the member wants the details he will need to ask the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I imagine the first thing is money. The previous Liberal government gutted the armed forces and then, at the last moment, it pumped a bit of money into the armed forces but not enough to do the job and not enough to pay for increases that it announced. There was not enough money in the budget to cover what it promised.

Our plan will be financed properly. We will deliver on what we say we will deliver and we will provide a better military capability than the Liberals planned. We will provide the capability that this country needs, both externally and internally.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, the member is alleging that Mr. Williams said that. If he did, that is fine, but there is no proof whatsoever, first, that anything will cost more by one means or another. However, in every process we have followed it has been a competitive process. An ACAN process is a competitive process. An SOIQ is a competitive process. In the heavy trucks, they are in a competitive process. Everyone has followed a competitive process.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, first, I think the hon. member is talking about the heavy trucks. We are trying to get some heavy trucks that have heavy armoured cabs into Afghanistan, and there is a competition. I do not know who is competing but I am told three or four companies are competing for this.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, maybe the translation did not capture the question bit, if it did, the Chief of the Defence Staff and myself are of one mind. As I told the member before, on the recommendation of the military, it recommended the extension to 2009 because it felt it could meet it and that has been confirmed by our evaluations.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I think I have answered this about 20 times in the House. I followed all the rules in the past, I am following them all today and I will follow them all in the future. If the member has any doubts, she should go see the Ethics Commissioner.