Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise in the House, especially on behalf of the men and women who work at the Shearwater military air force base.
I wish to thank the hon. member for Saint John who has been like a bulldog on this file for many years, and I say that with the greatest of respect. I thank her and her party for bringing this very important issue for debate today in the House of Commons.
I will tell a little human interest story before I get into the text of my speech. It is my daughter's unofficial 13th birthday today. She was born on February 29 and, of course, there is no February 29 this year. On behalf of parliament, I would like to wish Jasmin a happy 13th birthday. My best wishes also go to little Erika Nordby, the one year old girl in Edmonton who has proven to all of us that the human spirit lives on in the child. She has given us all hope for the future. I wish her and her family the very best and a prosperous future. I thank her for her indomitable spirit for what she has done.
Back to reality, to the issue of the contract that is before us and the tendering process. It is obvious that the government is up to something. In my earlier questioning of the minister of public works, I asked him about and challenged him on the tendering process. I stated that the way it was split and the way it was done will exclude a particular company from having fair and equitable access to the bid.
I did not mention the company's name. There are well over a dozen companies that could apply for this particular contract. Companies from around the world are bidding on this particular tender. The fact is the minister stood up and said that Cormorant can bid on this. He said Cormorant, not me. Of all the companies he could have picked and chosen, the minister of public works was the one who said Cormorant.
As members of parliament, it is not our place in the House of Commons, regardless of our party or our political background, whether we are federal, provincial or municipal, to stand up and defend the interests of one company over another. That is not our role. Our role is to ensure, especially in opposition on this side of the House, that when the government gives out a tender it is open and transparent.
We are talking here about Canadian tax dollars not the Liberal slush fund. When money is doled out for a tendering process, the contract or even the perception of the contract must be completely clean. It must be open and transparent, and any company anywhere can have the opportunity to bid on the contract.
Companies will compete among themselves. They are very good at that. Companies like Cormorant, Puma and Sikorsky all have the opportunity to bid among themselves, which is what they do best, and then the winner will decide on the best available equipment for the price.
Unfortunately the government has decided that is not the way to go. It will exclude the particular company in question because it would be politically unsuitable for them if indeed that particular company was successful in bidding on the contract.
I am sure the member for Saint John would then ask the following question because I know I, the Canadian Alliance and the Bloc would ask it as well. If that particular company is successful in bidding on the contract, then why the hell did the government cancel it in 1993 in the first place? That is the crux of the matter. That is what the entire debate is all about. It is strictly politics. It is political interference at the worst level, and it is quite obvious that it comes from the minister down. He mentioned it himself. He picked out the company name, not me. It is very clear that is what he has done.
On behalf of the men and women of Shearwater, they deserve and demand to have a proper helicopter in which to perform their duties. Right now Canada cannot meet its IATA agreements for minimum search and rescue requirements. If we ever have another unfortunate Swissair disaster, it is highly unlikely, with the cuts to the coast guard and to the military, that we would be able to meet the requirements.
That is an IATA agreement that we signed. We have a duty and a responsibility to protect our coastlines, especially in the north and the Arctic. We cannot even meet the minimum requirements because the Liberals over there are constantly delaying, treating our military like a bank account that they just keep robbing, taking away from and ignoring the lives of the men and women who work for the military. It goes on and on, not just with helicopters but with everything else. What the government has done to our military men and women is a disgrace.
The reason I speak so passionately about it, as may be known from previous speeches I have made in the House, is that I was born in Holland. My parents and oldest brother were liberated by the Canadian military in 1945. My father chose to come to Canada because of a young soldier he met. He asked him why Canada had risked and sacrificed so much. The soldier from Canada told my father “Well, sir, we had a job to do”. It was as simple as that.
Canada sacrificed many of its young men and women so that Holland and many other countries could be free. My father taught me that from day one. As an immigrant to Canada I feel honoured and privileged to stand up in the House of Commons for those men and women, especially the ones from Shearwater. It is my small way of thanking them and Canada for what they have given me.
The least I can do is go after the government to ensure there are proper resources and funding for our military men and women, so that when we put them in harm's way they will have the best equipment available. They should know that their families back home are well taken care of and that they, in the event they become injured, will not be treated like the Riordon family of Nova Scotia. What we have done to our veterans is an absolute disgrace.
I am stretching the argument a bit here. The reality is that the government has changed the tender process. It was once mandatory to have the replacement by 2005. Now the government says it would prefer to have it by 2005.
I do not believe for a second that the helicopters will be here by 2005. I do not believe it. In my consultations with various manufacturers they have said that even if the bid were announced today a company would have great difficulty securing the final aspect by 2005. They simply cannot get it done.
I wish the government had some guts for once to tell the truth around here. The reality is that 2005 will possibly not be the target date. It should stand and tell the Canadian people the truth. I do not see why that is so difficult.
I know I am stretching the parameters of discussion in that regard, but it is the fact of the matter. It has misled the House. It has misled our men and women. It has misled the Canadian people. That is simply unacceptable.
It is difficult to comprehend why the government acts the way it does. When we look at the history it is quite obvious why it does. Now I understand why the Conservatives have brought the motion forward. It was the Conservatives who were involved in the contract for the EH-101. They put the bid out and everything else. Those helicopters would have been flying today.
It was the Liberals that said if we vote for them they would get rid of it. They played on the fears of Canadians that it would drag us into further deficits. They completely ignored the needs and wishes of the military. It was almost like they were playing the military against the rest of society.
We see what that kind of attitude has done to our men and women in the military. The minister of defence has stood in the House time and time again to answer questions from my former colleague, Mr. Gordon Earle who represented Halifax West, and said the troop complement would never go below 60,000.
Now it is below 58,000 and it is going lower every day. The minister of defence said that, again misleading the House and Canadians. It is an absolute disgrace the way we treat our military men and women.
Another condition of the contract that I think is very important is the hours of maintenance. We would assume with this amount of money, the billions of dollars being spent on the project, there would be a commitment from whichever company is successful that it would require a certain number of hours of maintenance for hours of flying time.
The government is saying that we will save billions of dollars, that we will save all this money, but it does not tell us the current rate of maintenance on the Sea Kings we have today. It is over 30 hours of maintenance for one hour of flight time.
Those costs are not calculated into the so-called savings. It is a disgrace that the government can mislead the House and jig figures around to make them look good. We in the opposition understand that. We are not so naive and gullible as to fall for it.
The men and women of Shearwater air base and many other air bases across the country know it as well. They know the Liberals are not friends of the military or of the men and women who serve. They are certainly no friends of the company that wanted to bid on the contract. I will not mention the company by name because the minister has already done that. It is not my place to support one company over another, although I wish them all the best of luck in getting the contract. I do not believe it will be done by 2005. It is an absolute disgrace.
I have a couple of other things to say. The minister has stated that the procurement will be off the shelf, which means there will be no risk to the government. Could it assure us that the aircraft it procures will have an identifiable certificate of airworthiness at the time of purchase? Nothing in the contract says that. There is no guarantee that it will be airworthy by the time we get it.
What gives? What is going on in the shady halls or backrooms of the government and of the minister of public works? Who is pulling the strings around here when it comes to a very essential contract that we desperately need? It is not just for military purposes. As I stated before, it is also for search and rescue purposes. Our men and women could have something safe and new in which to fly, and something of which they could be proud.
I have said it time and again, as have many other members of the opposition and even some Liberal members. Our men and women of national defence are some of the greatest people in military uniform around the world. They are very proud to do the job they do. We as legislators sometimes make legislation that puts them in harm's way. It is paramount that we give them the best possible equipment with which to do their jobs. Unfortunately that has not happened.
The government delays and delays. I do not believe for a second that 2005 will be met. It is absolutely unfortunate that the government proceeds in this regard. Through access to information we learned that the government was advised of savings of over $700 million by the purchase of a helicopter that is common to search and rescue helicopter. The savings were identified as common air crews, common crew training systems, common spare and support systems, common manuals and common certification systems, et cetera.
The government ignored its own advice and played fast and loose with taxpayer money. It is unacceptable. In my view it is not uncommon. It just spent $1.3 billion on a home energy rebate that did not go to people who bought fuel. It went to prisoners and some U.S. citizens. We even found out the other day that it went to a member of parliament. I did not get mine. I know some charities that could have used it.
That is the mentality of the Liberal side. We are not surprised by that. Nobody is surprised by the actions of the government. It is a common theme that goes on and on. The unfortunate part is that we are not talking about energy. We are talking about the lives of the men and women of the military.
The people who maintain the Sea Kings are magicians when it comes to the mechanics. The Sea Kings have been stripped, torn down, ripped apart and put back together time and time again. The men and women who work on the Sea Kings deserve the applause of the House for the work they have done to keep the machines safe and up to standard.
Even the best mechanic cannot warn about unforeseen circumstances. The Sea Kings are very old. Even the best mechanic cannot do all the work that is required every time. Things can be overlooked, parts can be stressed and situations can happen.
It is incredible that the government did not think of that back in 1993. It is incredible that it is still not thinking of it. It announced the project. In fact when the announcement was made a colonel at Shearwater said it was a red letter day for the air force. He was right.
After all the pushing and shoving by the opposition, the government finally made an announcement. If the colonel had all the information we have now, I do not think he would have said it was a red letter day for the air force, especially now that we understand how the tendering process has worked and that it will not be ready by 2005.
I hope I am wrong. I hope the government proves me wrong. I will stand in the House and apologize to the government if the helicopters are here in 2005. I do not believe for a second that they will be. I wish the government would come clean and say that. It should tell the men and women of the military exactly what is going on. It should be honest with them. They deserve to be told the truth, but that is not happening right now.
It is incredible the government has gone on a secret little mission in Nova Scotia. It had a panel looking at realigned services for the Shearwater air base, the Greenwood air base in the Annapolis valley and the Halifax airport. I suspect with the recent announcement of cuts to the air force that Greenwood and or Shearwater may shut down.
If that is the role and the goal of the government it should tell us and let the men and women on those bases understand what is going on. Again, if I am wrong, I will stand and apologize to the House. I suspect that quite possibly one of those bases will be severely reduced.
As the representative for Shearwater I will do everything I can to protect Shearwater and keep it going. I am sure the member for Kings—Hants would do the same for his area and that the member for Vancouver Island would do the same to protect his. That is what we do. We try to protect the men and women of our constituencies against the ruthless cuts by the government.
This is an era of surplus, yet the government is continually cutting the military. It is no wonder it cannot recruit anyone for the military now and that men and women are going to the private sector.
Canada's military has a history of greatness because of the veterans who served in World War I, World War II, Korea and the Boer war, and our current veterans from the gulf war, Bosnia and so on. Those men and women did great work for Canada. They are wonderful ambassadors for Canada, spreading democracy around the world and defending the interests of those who cannot defend themselves.
The Liberals treat them with such disregard and disrespect that it is no wonder they are leaving in droves. The way they treat our veterans and our current military personnel, as well as the way they look at alternate service deliveries for the supply chain, completely destroys the hopes and aspirations of people in the civilian workforce such as the members of UNDE, the Union of National Defence Employees, who work on the bases. They may not be military men and women, but they are very proud and honoured to do the jobs they do. They are serving their country. What do the Liberals do? They look for alternate service delivery.
I have often wanted to say this and I will say it now. I would not be surprised if one day they stood in the House and alternate service delivered our entire military, contracted it out, completely shut it down, laid off the 50,000 men and women in our armed forces, and perhaps give the entire military to the U.S. or someone else.
