Discussion · Government Orders
Stephen Fuhr Liberal
“The Conservatives cut defence spending to less than 1% of our economy. The Liberals doubled military spending, and NATO confirmed that Canada met its target. We need this bill because the government needs a better system to spend defence money properly. I am asking for one more minute to speak.”
“Madam Speaker, as my colleague was building an alternate universe, I ran out of paper, so let me just try to respond. It was very high level. For years, the Conservatives have crowed about supporting the military and spending and all this stuff. They did buy a few things, there is no question about it. There is the list of things the member pointed out, and I think there was even a compliment in there somewhere for me, so I thank him for that. I appreciate it. At the end of the day, they spent less than 1% on defence spending. If we add up everything he said, when it got the keys to the car, the government was spending 1.13%. When it was done, it was under 1%. If we add all the pluses and minuses, we end up with a pretty big deficit. I had mentioned in my comments earlier that the previous Liberal government doubled defence spending and got it from under 1% to about 1.43%, but we did not get to 2%. Part of the reason we did not get to 2%, although we doubled the defence spending, is that we did not have a process that could dispatch the funds and a machine that could do it in a way it needs to be done, hence we are standing here talking about a new way of doing business that will meet the moment. I will say that we did get to 2% in about eight months from 1.5%. I know my critic over there is shaking his head because he found some conspiracy theory place that disagrees, but does he know who audits those numbers and actually says whether we make the number or we do not? It is NATO. NATO has decreed that Canada has met the bar. Everybody else can have an opinion, but the one that matters is NATO. It has confirmed that Canada did indeed meet the target. Can I have another minute? He had about 10 minutes. I am just getting warmed up.”
Madam Speaker, as my colleague was building an alternate universe, I ran out of paper, so let me just try to respond. It was very high level. For years, the Conservatives have crowed about supporting the military and spending and all this stuff. They did buy a few things, there is no question about it. There is the list of things the member pointed out, and I think there was even a compliment in there somewhere for me, so I thank him for that. I appreciate it. At the end of the day, they spent less than 1% on defence spending. If we add up everything he said, when it got the keys to the car, the government was spending 1.13%. When it was done, it was under 1%. If we add all the pluses and minuses, we end up with a pretty big deficit. I had mentioned in my comments earlier that the previous Liberal government doubled defence spending and got it from under 1% to about 1.43%, but we did not get to 2%. Part of the reason we did not get to 2%, although we doubled the defence spending, is that we did not have a process that could dispatch the funds and a machine that could do it in a way it needs to be done, hence we are standing here talking about a new way of doing business that will meet the moment. I will say that we did get to 2% in about eight months from 1.5%. I know my critic over there is shaking his head because he found some conspiracy theory place that disagrees, but does he know who audits those numbers and actually says whether we make the number or we do not? It is NATO. NATO has decreed that Canada has met the bar. Everybody else can have an opinion, but the one that matters is NATO. It has confirmed that Canada did indeed meet the target. Can I have another minute? He had about 10 minutes. I am just getting warmed up.