National Defence committee  The high price is that we are not as familiar with the United Nations as we could be, so when we go into those missions, we do not have all the knowledge we need to network effectively in that system. We have paid a high price because we're no longer providing the leadership at t

National Defence committee  Sure.

National Defence committee  I would recommend finding a name that captures your thesis—I tell this to students who are writing essays—and then subtitling it “Canada's role in international peace operations”.

National Defence committee  I don't think we've ever stopped our troops from doing combat.

National Defence committee  What we have lost is the training that's specifically for the UN. We do far less of it and we have far less experience.

National Defence committee  I am personally embarrassed by that. When I go to the UN headquarters, sometimes I feel that I have to apologize. I'm very sorry, but when I was in the field speaking to UN officials, one of them said it has become kind of a joke that the Canadians are coming. We take lots of tim

National Defence committee  You'd have to ask cabinet members.

National Defence committee  Well, one of my concerns is that we're not even at the levels that had been approved by previous governments in the current missions. We're in five missions now, and we're not even at the levels that we could have deployed at in those missions, so we're not gaining any experience

National Defence committee  I'd assess the threat as moderate at this time, but unpredictable.

National Defence committee  Sure. To put it in 60 seconds, I'm in favour. I think we should be doing more. We should deploy a quick-reaction force, and we're looking for a place to do that. I think that Mali corresponds with both our values and our interests. Mali is a long-standing democracy that's faced c

National Defence committee  One of the recommendations of the Somali inquiry was that Canada needed to better train its forces. It was one of the brutal lessons from the Somali debacle. The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre and the PSTC, the Peace Support Training Centre, were created as a result of that hard-lea

National Defence committee  I think that would be an accurate estimate, yes.

National Defence committee  I think you're going to be happy with the answer. Kingston is actually a good area because—

National Defence committee  —it's close enough to Ottawa but far enough away. It already has the Peace Support Training Centre. There are facilities, for instance, in Fort Frontenac that could be used. I've taught there at the Command and Staff College for the army. You need to be fairly close to an airport

National Defence committee  Yes, they're also in favour of that location.