House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 49% of the vote.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, the only crisis that has been created is that of the previous government not replacing our jet fighters sooner.
As I stated, the commander of the air force does tremendous work with all the assets he has and conducts risk management with all our missions. We are in a gap situation right now between our NORAD and NATO commitments.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, maybe the hon. member should have been asking more detailed questions when he was the parliamentary secretary of national defence because I am going to tell the member about a gap that we are also dealing with regarding our joint support ships.
That is a gap that was created, a capability gap, and now we do not have joint support ships. We are looking at interim measures. However, we will be ensuring that we replace our fighters before any capability gap gets too big.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, all of our service chiefs, including the commander of the air force, have the job of ensuring they get the job done with the resources they have.
However, we are risk-managing a gap between our NORAD and NATO commitments at this time.
I want to make it clear that our air force and CF-18s do tremendous work on a daily basis, whether air policing in Europe or training here, and responding to our NORAD commitments.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, we are committed to replacing our fighters and we will do so, but no decision has been made at this time.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, just so the member fully knows, it has interim operability right now. It is not at full operational capability, but we are committed to replacing our fighters. We are going through a thorough process. I will make sure that my officials and I take the time to make sure that we get this right.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, in terms of the replacement of our fighter jets, we are committed to replacing our jet fighters, and we will do so. No decision has been made at this time. However, we are committed to making sure that we get this right. I will make sure that we do a thorough analysis of this. When a full analysis is done, we will make an appropriate announcement in this House and to Canadians.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, it was the previous government that cut over $3 billion from the budget. Our government is committed to making sure that we purchase the right equipment for our troops, and that is exactly what we are going to do.
National Defence June 8th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to supporting the mission in Iraq and Syria. Our troops on the training and advising are doing wonderful work. I recently got a briefing from the counter-ISIL mission. Progress is being made. I am very proud of the work our men and women are actually doing on behalf of Canada.
National Defence June 7th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, as I also stated in the past, even though we are launching a defence review, replacing our fighters and the national shipbuilding strategy are going to be going on a separate path, and that is what we have been doing. We are working very hard on that. We are doing all the thorough analysis. When all that work is done, we will be making the announcement for that.
National Defence June 7th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, as I stated earlier, we are committed to replacing our CF-18s and we will do our due diligence to do so. There is a capability gap that was created by the previous government and we will ensure that we will fill this gap.