Discussion · Government Orders
Cheryl Gallant Conservative
“The military spending targets are only part of what we need to keep Canada safe. Other countries arm their coast guards, so NATO counts them as military equipment. Canada's Coast Guard is not armed, so its job should just be sharing ocean information with our military.”
“Mr. Speaker, the member from the Bloc is absolutely right. The 5%, 1.5% of which can go into infrastructure or a soft cost for the military, is only a piece of it. The other money is supposed to actually go into national defence to make our country safer. What was mentioned earlier was the Coast Guard. The fact is that other countries’ coast guards, which are included in the NATO calculation of 3.5% for the equipment, are actually armed. Our Coast Guard is not armed. All it would be doing is what it should have been doing already, and that is sharing information with defence, based on what it sees on the oceans.”
-
Reply to a debate question
Relevance 45 of 100
None of this reply addressed the specific point raised or the topic under debate.
See full analysis
Mr. Speaker, the member from the Bloc is absolutely right. The 5%, 1.5% of which can go into infrastructure or a soft cost for the military, is only a piece of it. The other money is supposed to actually go into national defence to make our country safer. What was mentioned earlier was the Coast Guard. The fact is that other countries’ coast guards, which are included in the NATO calculation of 3.5% for the equipment, are actually armed. Our Coast Guard is not armed. All it would be doing is what it should have been doing already, and that is sharing information with defence, based on what it sees on the oceans.