Peter MacKay

[Foreign Affairs, March 1st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Nanaimo—Alberni for his hard work and leadership.

In fact, today we are welcoming to Canada Peru's minister of national defence, Pedro Cateriano Bellido, and the commander of the Peruvian navy as well, admiral Carlos Roberto Tejada Mera.

Canada enjoys a strong relationship with Peru based on shared values, including democracy. I am pleased to tell the House that later today we will be signing a defence co-operation memorandum of understanding that will help guide our future defence relations in areas such as policy, peace, humanitarian operations, disaster response and military education and training.

This agreement strongly supports the growing ties between Canada and Peru and our government's leadership in the Americas.

Muchas gracias, mis amigos

[National Defence, February 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, let me inject a little reality into the House. In fact, the Conservative government has seen increases of roughly 34% in the defence budget since 2005-06. Let us roll the clock back to when this member was part of the government that presided over a decade of darkness that saw the Canadian Forces rusted out.

Whether we have increased funding for procurement, for infrastructure, for salaries, or for programs for soldiers, this member and this party have a sad, sorry record of not supporting the Canadian Forces.

[Aerospace Industry, February 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my B.C. colleague for the very timely and relevant question.

This morning not one but two satellites were successfully launched as part of an international effort. The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, NEOSSat, as well as Sapphire, are Canada's first dedicated operational military satellites. These are achievements that every Canadian can be proud of, proof that Canadian ingenuity and leadership in advanced space technology are indeed out of this world.

Canada's highly competitive aerospace and space industries are major contributors to our economy, and these milestones are two more examples of what our world-class Canadian companies can accomplish.

[Search and Rescue, February 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as was indicated earlier by the member for South Shore—St. Margaret's and by this member, our thoughts and prayers remain with the families of those who lost loved ones on the Miss Ally. The entire community of Woods Harbour, Nova Scotia, continues to grieve.

National Defence, the Canadian Coast Guard, the United States Coast Guard and private assets were all involved in the search and rescue mission. After the mission turned to a recovery operation under the RCMP, I immediately responded positively to a request from my colleague, the Minister of Public Safety, that Canadian Forces assets also support the recovery mission.

[Veterans Affairs, February 14th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, again that is a bit rich coming from this member in particular and his party.

In addition to settling this particular lawsuit, which has amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, I would point to the billions of dollars that have been added to the benefits for veterans and their families and for members of the Canadian armed forces through new programs, new equipment, new support, new infrastructure across the country and new protective equipment, all of which has been consistently opposed and voted against by that member and the hypocrisy of his party.

[Veterans Affairs, February 14th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, putting aside his feigned indignation, I have already indicated we have in fact acted quickly to ensure that this settlement benefits veterans and their families. That is the responsible thing to do.

We have also indicated to the judge who was adjudicating that we feel the lawyers' fees that are being claimed and applied in this case are excessive.

We hope, though we will not interfere in that decision, that the judge will do the right thing and ensure that these funds are going to veterans in a way that will help them and their families.

[Veterans Affairs, February 14th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated very clearly yesterday, we have voiced our concerns about the costs associated with the legal fees that are being sought by those who were defending the veterans at this class action. We have acted quickly to settle this class action upon the court's decision being rendered.

We have made our views very clear that we feel the lawyers are seeking excessive costs. This settlement was intended then, as now, to respond to the needs of veterans and their families.

If the member wants to stand up for lawyers, he is welcome to do so. We will stand up for veterans.

[Veterans Affairs, February 13th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, my Nova Scotia colleague is correct. In fact, in January, I announced that the agreement in principle, estimated at over $887 million, was reached with the veterans' counsel. This settlement will be of tremendous assistance to veterans and their families.

The court will soon consider the proposed settlement, including legal fees sought by veterans' lawyers. Legal fees of $66 million—that is a $13,000 hourly rate—are being sought. We find this grossly excessive. The federal government will oppose the amount of legal fees sought as unreasonable. We expect that the bulk of the settlement will reach the intended beneficiaries, the veterans.

[Search and Rescue, January 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the incident in question, there was a Royal Canadian Air Force Cormorant helicopter dispatched. It searched the area for two hours in search of the hunter. Unfortunately, that hunter has not yet been located.

The ongoing search, in coordination with the RCMP and local fire and rescue, continues and our thoughts and prayers are with that family and those who are conducting the search.

Regarding the reference to the misspeaking of an official, this individual is an experienced navigator who had spent a lot of time in Haiti and simply misspoke when he said Port-au-Prince. He clearly meant Port au Port, and he corrected that as soon as it was noted.

[Search and Rescue, January 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I note, and the member opposite would know coming from Newfoundland and Labrador, this is the week of the anniversary of the death of young Burton Winters. Our thoughts are with his family and the community of Makkovik at this time.

In response to that particular incident and the necessity to make improvements, we did place another helicopter at the base in Goose Bay, Labrador. We have also changed the protocol. We are working much closer now with provinces and territories to coordinate ground search and rescue. We will continue to make necessary investments in improvements to search and rescue. Our SAR techs do a spectacular job in that regard.