Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from South Surrey—White Rock. I want to start by commending my colleague from Parry Sound—Muskoka and the House Leader of the Official Opposition for the excellent work they are doing on this issue. It is important to note what we are talking about here.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the government is inventing a crisis that does not exist in order to acquire Super Hornet fighters. The only ones who are talking about a capability gap are the minister and the parliamentary secretary. I would like to remind members that on April 14, in committee, General Hood said, “We have enough trained personnel; we have enough aircraft and enough maintenance people...and we have the money...to operate.”

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the National Post quoted a former Royal Canadian Air Force officer and pilot who contradicted the government's claims. He says that there is no reason to rush to replace the CF-18s and purchase the Super Hornet. There is enough time to hold an open competition to choose the best aircraft to replace our CF-18s.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the only gap here is on the government benches. The government seems to be suffering from an imaginary problem. Among their many gaps, the Liberals have a capability gap. On April 14, General Hood, Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force, said that the CF-18s' useful life had been extended to 2025.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the capability gap was created in collaboration with lobbyists. Since February, Boeing had 10 meetings with senior political staff. More than half of those meetings were with the senior policy adviser to the Minister of National Defence and the Prime Minister. That many meetings with the same group smells fishy to me.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the current fleet of CF-18s has been refurbished to last until 2025, which is enough time to transition to the next fighter jet. The urgency the Liberals are describing seems to have been invented specifically to give the Prime Minister an excuse not to purchase the F-35.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, senior officials have confirmed that the Liberal government has already decided to purchase F-18 Super Hornets. Before making the announcement, the Liberals just have to finalize the narrative to justify this purchase. Although they promised to hold an open, transparent competition, the result has already been decided: another broken Liberal promise.

Normandy Landing  Mr. Speaker, June 6, 1944, D-Day, was a pivotal day in human history, known as the longest day. That day, nearly 150,000 American, British, French, and Canadian soldiers stormed the Atlantic Wall in Normandy to free Europe from Nazi oppression. Over 14,000 Canadian heroes from all over the country took part in the Normandy landing, and 355 of them gave their lives.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, first it was U.S. Army officers, now it is the commander of the Canadian special operations forces who is confirming that our troops are on the front lines near Mosul. Brigadier General Rouleau says that the troops spend 20% of their time on the front lines. The Prime Minister kept telling Canadians that this was just a training mission for Iraqi troops.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, by withdrawing our CF-18s in order to keep an election promise, the Liberals are putting our soldiers' lives at risk, even more so now that we are on the front line of the offensive in Fallujah. Officers with the U.S. Army have confirmed that our special forces are on the front line.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, the government is putting the lives of our soldiers in Iraq at risk by publishing photos of their faces. The minister does not think that there was anything wrong with publishing the photos because the defence staff approved it. However, in the same type of photos authorized by the same defence staff a year earlier, the soldiers' faces were blurred out.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, I would like to hear the minister's thoughts on maintaining Canada's special operations forces. In light of the changes to Canada's missions, which are being aligned with those of the UN, does the minister think that our special operations forces are still necessary?

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, in the beginning, we spoke a bit about Canada's military bases. Could the minister confirm today that he does not intend to close or shrink the Bagotville base in Quebec?

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, with respect to the bases, can the minister confirm that no reserve units or armouries will be shut down?

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, earlier, we spoke about threats to Canada. During our visit to NORAD, my NDP colleague had a different perspective than I and my Liberal colleagues did. I would like the minister to tell us how Canada can protect itself against a direct or indirect missile attack, since we are in the path between North Korea, Russia, and the United States.