Scott Anderson

Mr. Speaker, Positioning · 40 wordsthe thoughts of this House are with the brave soldiers who were killed and badly injured at Wainwright.¹ The fact that these young men knew and accepted the risks beforehand is what makes them the Canadian heroes we will remember.PositioningOff point Claims · 39 wordsThe soldiers wearing our Canadian uniforms are well renowned for peacekeeping and asymmetrical warfare even with outdated equipment.Partly on point They serve aboard aging ships, fly in old airplanes and train with equipment that was new over half a century ago. Anecdote · 24 wordsI know this because I was in that equipment only 15 years ago, in simpler times when war was far away from our shores.Anecdote Claims · 14 wordsThat was at a time when grey-zone warfare was just a concept for novels.Partly on point Reasoning · 25 wordsAfter more than a decade of the Liberals sidelining Arctic sovereignty and continental defence, the need for rebuilding our armed forces is obvious to everyone.Unearned certainty Positioning · 14 wordsOur geostrategic reality has shifted over the past decade while the Liberals have slept, PositioningClaims · 14 wordsand we can no longer ignore the attacks against the west by foreign powers. Positioning · 27 wordsThis is not the bogeyman to the south, who the Liberals blame for everything, Off pointbut our real enemies, the ones actively engaged in grey-zone warfare against us: PositioningClaims · 3 wordsRussia and China. Reasoning · 30 wordsIn Afghanistan, we could afford to use older equipment because our outdated tanks and borrowed logistics were still generations ahead of anything the Taliban could send. They were good enough. Positioning · 7 wordsToday, we live in a different world.PositioningPartly on point Claims · 9 wordsCyber-attacks and other grey-zone warfare is on the rise. Reasoning · 17 wordsIf we are going to protect our northern sovereignty, we must rearm with first-class modern hard power. Claims · 34 wordsThe government’s own figures show the urgency to update and fill our forces. In 2024-25, serviceability across key fleets stood at 59% for maritime equipment, 51% for land equipment and 42% for aerospace equipment.² Reasoning · 16 wordsThese describe serious constraints on what our military could do even if our equipment was modern. Claims · 39 wordsToday, we ask our soldiers to be ready to fight against battle-hardened enemy soldiers in a three-dimensional, high-tech, 21st-century battle space, and we ask them to do it using weapons that were old even 20 years ago in Afghanistan. Reasoning · 17 wordsUkraine has shown us that the next war will be fought with weaponry never imagined before 2022. Positioning · 34 wordsOnly the very best is good enough for our troops in today’s threat environment. Our soldiers, airmen and sailors have no voice.Partly on point They depend on us here in this chamber to speak for them.PositioningOff point Claims · 27 wordsThey are entitled to know when their equipment will arrive, and they must know, in an era of symmetrical warfare, that they have the best equipment possible. Positioning · 27 wordsConservatives support getting equipment to our armed forces faster. We support a strong Canadian defence industry, clear responsibility for procurement, and the removal of unnecessary red tape.Positioning Reasoning · 34 wordsHowever, Bill C-40 asks Parliament to accept that giving a new Crown corporation greater flexibility, ³while placing substantial authority in the minister’s hands, will finally solve problems the government has repeatedly promised to fix. Claims · 47 wordsThe Defence Investment Agency began in October 2025 as a special operating agency within Public Services and Procurement Canada.⁴ Then the Liberals proposed a stand-alone agency. Now they have proposed a Crown corporation with dedicated ministerial leadership.⁵ Each iteration has promised to bring greater speed and clarity. Reasoning · 59 wordsEach iteration is built atop the failed promise of the last one. Each iteration takes procurement farther away from the military and toward civilians, some of whom do not know the difference between an RPG and an RPAL. Perhaps that is why 18 months after taking office, the Liberal government has plastered this House and the media with announcements, ⁶Claims · 46 wordsbut the only thing it has managed to produce is a signature on the yellowed papers that will eventually get new rifles to our troops.Partly on point Eighteen months is the time it took to build the Empire State Building and the Alaska Highway from planning to completion.⁷ Reasoning · 22 wordsIf the government had been in charge of the Alaska Highway, we would still be laying logs in muskeg 85 years later. Positioning · 19 wordsWhy is that? Why is the government shouting announcements from the rooftop while doing as little as humanly possible?PositioningOff point Claims · 71 wordsAfter 18 months, the Liberal government cannot even decide to buy what must be the most over-vetted aircraft in the history of North American military flight.⁸ The F-35 is an airplane that our air force generals need, an aircraft we Canadians helped develop and a transitional aircraft on the cusp of an age of autonomous warplanes.⁹ It is the only aircraft with continental deterrence value today and into the next decade, Positioning · 9 wordsand the Liberal government can do nothing but dither.Positioning The question · 34 wordsWhy?Off point What has changed in the military requirement? Has NORAD suddenly become less important? Has the threat to the Canadian Arctic diminished, or is it because of the Prime Minister’s ambitions toward European integration?Partly on point Procedure · 10 wordsLet us step back down to earth for a minute.Procedure Claims · 55 wordsWe are a North American nation whose security depends on NORAD, and NORAD depends on our military integration with the United States and the defence of our Arctic, Partly on pointyet this legislation would grant sweeping powers to a new Crown corporation just as the Prime Minister redirects defence procurement toward Europe through SAFE and Readiness 2030.¹⁰ Positioning · 20 wordsThe Liberals try to pass this redirection off as diversification, knowing full well that it is nothing of the sort.Positioning Claims · 34 wordsIt is an expensive security arrangement that almost certainly benefits European bankers more than Canadians.Off point The European Union cannot replace NORAD, Partly on pointand European equipment may cost a fortune to integrate into continental defence systems. The question · 25 wordsWill scarce defence dollars be diverted from Arctic surveillance, air defence and NORAD modernization to satisfy the security demands of the Prime Minister’s pet project? Claims · 5 wordsEurope is an important ally, Reasoning · 22 wordsbut geography is not a political preference.Partly on point Canada’s defence procurement must serve our security requirements, not the Prime Minister’s European geopolitical ambitions. Claims · 44 wordsThis is precisely the issue I raised with the Parliamentary Budget Officer when I questioned the competing financial demands of European and continental defence ambitions.¹¹ She acknowledged the tension between the two and identified aircraft procurement as one of the major expenditures potentially affected.¹² Reasoning · 28 wordsWe therefore have a government advancing multi-billion-dollar European procurement initiatives without Parliament having any clear financial picture, or the additional costs of maintaining interoperability with our American partners. Claims · 10 wordsThe Carney government is simultaneously pursuing European defence procurement arrangements—Partly on point