Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to stand in the House, but certainly today to speak on behalf of my constituents of Battle River—Crowfoot. I will be speaking against the Liberal government's efforts to reduce Canada's contribution to the international effort to fight ISIL.
My constituents would want me to thank the brave men and women of our Canadian Armed Forces for the outstanding job they do. I do not have an air base in my constituency, but I do have Camp Wainright where members of the Canadian Armed Forces personnel are trained. They are the ones who are taking the fight to ISIL.
The Liberal government's motion is titled “Canada's contribution to the effort to combat ISIL”, a title which is putting a veil over what the Liberals are trying to do. On the one hand, the Liberals are causing Canada to be seen as cutting and running from the battle with ISIL. The Liberals honestly are leaving the fight to our allies. On the other hand though, the Liberals are increasing the risks to our Canadian Armed Forces personnel on the ground in the fight against these barbaric jihadi terrorists. The Liberals claim that our troops on the ground, which will be training soldiers close to the combat theatre, will have air support from our allies, the same allies that we have just abandoned in the air strike mission.
We hope our troops will still have air support. Canada had CF-18s that would have protected our troops not that long ago when we came under attack, as my colleague just mentioned. We called in the Canadian Armed Forces and our allies responded as well. When Canadians come under fire, our CF-18s will no longer be there to do that.
In the past, the Liberals pleaded with us many times to have the debate brought to Parliament. We are debating after the fact. Today we stand here debating this mission after the decision has already been made and our jets are on the way home. Following the Liberals' recent announcement that Canada was cutting and running from the international mission to combat ISIS, our jets were on their way home.
Our Conservative leader was the first to respond to this. Everyone in Canada heard her say that it was shameful that our allies would have to fight without us. Our fighter jets will no longer be eliminating ISIS targets. The Liberal Prime Minister is withdrawing from this fight and is leaving the combat mission to others.
In reply to questions, our leader diplomatically suggested that Canada's allies were being polite by not criticizing Canada. Every right-thinking Canadian felt the emotion, the outright disappointment, disgust and anger that Canada had abandoned its allies.
I went throughout my constituency and talked to people at open houses or at meetings. Even people who did not support me in the last election told me they were very disappointed in the Liberal government for abandoning the fight and our allies. Every Canadian was proud of the role that Canada played. Now there is disappointment.
Canada's CF-18s have made a tangible impact against ISIL. They have strategically eliminated hundreds of targets, including ISIL fighting positions, weapons caches, critical infrastructure, and command centres. Together with our coalition partners, the Royal Canadian Air Force helped to take back between 20% to 25% of areas that were previously controlled by these terrorists.
These people have barbarically beheaded Christians, children, and even other Muslims who did not see life exactly the way they saw it.
Media were reporting that the air strikes had reduced ISIL's ability to spread the influence throughout the region and around the world. Our CF-18s were helping to target cash stores, oil infrastructure, and supply lines.
As a result, ISIL now only has access to a fraction of the financial resources that it had in order to fund, recruit, and keep those who are fighting and carrying on the battle. ISIL can no longer offer lucrative salaries to its soldiers and to benefit ISIL fighters. Why? Because a lot of its cash and resources have dried up, thanks to the air attacks of which Canadians were part.
It is shameful that the Prime Minister is making this easier for ISIL by withdrawing Canada's fighter jets. Canada should continue to take the fight directly to ISIS with our CF-18s, not only because it is the right thing to do but because it is working.
Our previous Conservative government answered the call from our allies. We agreed to engage in the hard work of degrading ISIL's capabilities, eliminating its equipment, reducing its personnel and its power to inflect genocide upon innocent people of that region. We showed unity. We worked together with our allies.
The Liberal government is struggling to somehow justify its withdrawing Canada from the fight against ISIL. On one hand, when the Liberals speak to those who are leaning left toward the NDP, they talk about this not being a combat mission. However, when they are talking to our military, when they are talking to their blue Liberals, they talk about the importance of what we are going to do now. It is shameful.
In this debate so far, we have heard contradictory and incoherent arguments from the Liberals on their policy to have Canada retreat from the combat element of this mission to combat ISIS.
The Minister of National Defence and the Prime Minister cannot even answer the question. In fact, I noticed that the NDP and others from the Conservative Party were asking different ministers and different people whether it was or was not a combat mission. It was almost fun to watch how they would try to wordsmith it so they could keep sitting on the fence.
Of course, last week the Chief of the Defence Staff admitted we were withdrawing from the combat mission.
Canadians remember the Liberal Prime Minister mocking the mission, mocking the air force, mocking our combat against ISIL, before he became prime minister. It was unbelievable. I remember when he said it. We could hardly believe it. Was it a bad joke, a joke gone bad, another bozo moment? One of the members said that some Canadians thought this was a lame attempt at making a joke or just being plain silly. Yet, we know that this is the way our current Prime Minister thinks of it. He responds to these serious situations with some flippant comment.
The same Prime Minister promised that he would only have $10 billion deficits for the next few years, and then he would balance the budget. We found out he broke that promise, too.
Canadians are now learning exactly what type of government this is. It is one that can say anything and back away at a moment's notice.
Unfortunately, the government is backing away from a mission against what I believe is the world's greatest threat at this time, and that is ISIL. There are not too many, even on the Liberal side, who would disagree with that. They would see this as a common enemy. However, they would just rather not fight. Rather, they would train someone else to fight for us. That is not the way Canada has done it in the past.
I hope the time will come that Canada will again stand with our allies shoulder to shoulder, not just in a minor role, and I know our soldiers will do an amazing job in whatever role they are given, when there is heavy lifting to be done and when there are other roles the Liberal government would have us play.
