National Defence committee  Could you repeat the question?

National Defence committee  Just so we're clear, there's a difference between transient housing and living quarters. For living quarters, Alyssa would probably the better person to ask, but for transient quarters, where I spent most of my experience, because I never lived in the PMQs, yes, absolutely, these buildings are falling apart.

National Defence committee  One thing I would say when it comes to transfers is to keep in mind that, to answer an earlier question as well, there are intertrade transfers to get a preferential posting. People will leave the trade they're in because where their trade is centralized in those bases, there is not a good housing market and there are not good situations.

National Defence committee  I think putting more of the maintenance contracts, the real property maintenance and management, back in the hands of the people who are accountable to the same system we are part of would probably go a long way. Representation is the one thing the military lacks, but it is constantly in demand.

National Defence committee  It was quite the slap in the face to those who were receiving the PLD to be told, especially in the manner in which they were told, that they would be losing it. They were told, “Don't worry. Here comes a pay raise that's going to cover the loss.” It didn't. They were told, “Oh, don't worry.

National Defence committee  Just so we're clear, this is a not a sentiment that's limited to the housing situation. This is across the board. From reading the news, I don't even think this is limited to the military. This is happening across the public sector. Budgets keep getting slashed, and it's.... I'm trying to speak eloquently so that I'm not being adversarial.

National Defence committee  We would need to reverse 60 years of budget cuts.

National Defence committee  When I spoke against privatization, I was speaking against the management aspect of it. In Vancouver, CFHA, to my understanding, does not run the show out there. They've contracted it out to a private company who does it on their behalf. That's what I am referring to. Soldiers and their families don't want to be dealing with subcontractors.

National Defence committee  To speak of urban centres, I think of Toronto, where a lot of people are posted in and out. The 4th division is there. The support group is there along with 32 brigade and a bunch of reserve and cadet units. There are people posted in from bases across the country at various ranks.

National Defence committee  That is not information that is typically shared with people outside of the real property offices.

National Defence committee  I can only imagine, based on my understanding of the military system at large, that there is a system, but that's not something they share.

National Defence committee  For new builds...?

National Defence committee  That is outside of my expertise, I'm afraid.

National Defence committee  I would defer to Alyssa for that question.

National Defence committee  Given the number of times that we've had to spend money, to pull money from other line items to spend on fixing the gaps from the hired contractors who left, I would say that it's probably no.