Official Hansard
Madam Speaker, this being a solemn day, as we think about the tragedy and disaster that happened at CFB Wainwright, I just want to extend my heartfelt and sincere condolences to families and Canadian Armed Forces members, especially those who were on site. They are in our thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time. I would like to acknowledge Private Aidan Goulding, Private Shaun Farrell and Private Hayden Lykkemark, all part of the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, as well as Sergeant Morgan Wong, a reservist with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment. After their passing during this tragedy, we want to rally behind their families and their comrades at this time. We also want the 39 injured members of the Canadian Armed Force to know that we will be there. We will work across party lines. All of us are going to stand with them 100% to ensure that they get the supports they need to heal and recover, and ensure that if they are unable to return to work, supports are there through Veterans Affairs Canada. I have been to CFB Wainwright on a number of occasions, to be out there, to witness training and to participate in some of the training exercises, including with the PPCLI. I see why the young men and women who put on the uniform are the best of the best that Canada has to offer. They are so excited to be serving our great nation. We realize that they have to do things like live-fire training so they are always ready to defend us. Again, we send out all our support, our prayers and our love to the entire Canadian Armed Forces military family. Conservatives always support our armed forces, and we have a record of getting equipment bought and delivered in a very timely and quick manner. After the Liberal decade of darkness under Chrétien and Paul Martin, the Canadian Armed Forces was in dire need of reinvestment. We witnessed that its members were sent into Afghanistan wearing things like green uniforms. They did not have proper boots. They did not have kevlar body armour and tactical vests. We quickly went out there and bought for them the stuff they needed to work in theatre. During our time in government, we bought 650 brand new LAVs so they had light armoured vehicles to do the work they did, and 500 tactical armoured patrol vehicles. We bought 100 Leopard tanks. The Liberals, during the Chrétien era, were decommissioning all of our Leopard tanks, and what we needed in Afghanistan were Leopard tanks, so we bought 100 Leopard 2 main battle tanks. We bought 82 armoured heavy support vehicle systems and 50 Nyala armoured vehicles so they could move around more carefully, and we bought IED vehicles to clear away all of the mines and IEDs that were causing harm. Many of the fatalities and casualties experienced in Afghanistan were caused by them. We bought 16 of those vehicles and bought 37 M777 howitzers. We made sure that our army had what it needed when it went into theatre. In terms of our air force, we were at a point when we took over as government that we were begging the Americans to help us move our troops into Afghanistan. We were hitching rides with the Russians, of all people, having to get them to come with their heavy-lift Antonovs to move us. We invested in buying five brand new C-17 tactical Globemasters. We bought 21 Chinook helicopters to move our troops around in Afghanistan safely and get them away from IEDs. We bought 17 new Hercules CC-130J models, and we bought a number of UAVs. During that time, we also upgraded our CF-18s and extended the life of our Auroras, which are now past their end of life. This is going back to over 15 years ago when we made those investments. We also made the decision to buy the F-35 as our future fighter jet. On the navy side, we made sure that we stood up the national shipbuilding program. We ordered the very first six AOPSs, the Harry DeWolf-class Arctic offshore patrol ships. We ordered two joint supply ships, the protecteur class. We not only ordered but delivered on time the Asterix auxiliary offshore replenishment vessel to support our navy until the JSS’s were delivered. We also did a mid-life extension to our Halifax-class frigates. We stood up and bought what we needed. We know that sometimes we have to sole-source, so we used national security exemptions and the urgent operational requirements required by the CAF to sole-source where we had to. Some things we have to buy off the shelf to get them into play quickly, ensuring they are interoperable with our allies. We proved that we were able to get stuff done because of political leadership. We made sure that this started right at the top, with the the prime minister at that time, Stephen Harper, directing the PCO and cabinet to set up a secretariat of ministers and deputy ministers to provide leadership back down to the bureaucracies to get things done and buy the kit and equipment we needed to support the Canadian Armed Forces, especially during a time of war. Here we are, 11 years in with the Liberal government, and I can say that our fighter jets and most of the aircraft we have within the military right now are worn out. We know the army has been hollowed out and the navy is rusting out right before our eyes. To prove the point, all we have to do is look at the serviceability, readiness and operational demands of the vehicle fleets we have within the Canadian Armed Forces. This is right out of the performance reports from National Defence. In 2023-24, only 49% of land vehicles for the army were serviceable and deployable. That increased slightly to 51% in 2024-25, the last year for which we have this data. It is so bad that the guys deployed right now to Latvia are not able to train properly alongside our allies because a number of their vehicles are broken down. There is not enough in the budget to maintain and repair them and put them back into service. Often, a couple hundred of our guys who are deployed do not get certified for working as a brigade alongside our allies. In 2023, only 48.9% of our air fleet was available for operational deployments. That dropped down to 42.3% last year under the Liberals. In 2023-24, only 45% of the maritime fleet was deployable. That increased in 2024-25 to 59.6%, almost 60%. How did the Liberals make that gain? They were able to do that because they retired an entire class of patrol vessels, our Kingston-class coastal patrol vessels. They mothballed them. They are sitting in furlough now and being scrapped instead of being out there protecting our sovereignty and patrolling our maritime coastline. After 11 years, all we have gotten from the Liberals is talk and no action. The proof is in the numbers, and the sorry state of the Canadian Armed Forces today is due to 11 years of neglect by the Liberals. We are looking at a system where the Canadian Armed Forces know what they need but the Liberals are not going to give it to them. As a case in point, since the minister is talking about all the things they bought, one thing they are supposed to buy is new assault and sniper rifles, the C25s and C26s. However, we are waiting for them because the Liberals failed to sign a contract to get them delivered before all the orders were booked with the manufacturer. The Denmark and United Kingdom militaries are getting these assault rifles before we do. Our guys have to wait in the queue because we allowed other countries to jump ahead of us and buy up these new assault rifles. With respect to the SkyGuardian, the Liberals announced three years ago that we were going to have a new drone patrol aircraft or reconnaissance vessel that could fly all over Canada and up into the Arctic, but the first one has still not been delivered. Where is it? We are still looking for it. The government bought the Kingfishers, the CC-295s. This is a procurement that continues to lag behind, as it is not fit for operations. We know that the air force is struggling to use this jet to do fixed-wing search and rescue and contour flying in the Canadian Rockies. The plane has not been able to pass operational requirements, as set out by the Royal Canadian Air Force, and is still not certified, and not all the planes have been delivered at this point in time. I will note one of the greatest examples of the failure of the Liberal government. Since the war in Ukraine started, which we are four and a half years into now, we have seen how important artillery shells are in the war. Ukraine goes through between 5,000 and 6,000 shells a day. Russia has used over 30,000 shells against Ukrainians on Ukrainian territory. Putin’s war machine is getting shells from his allies: North Korea and Iran, which are not our friends. Meanwhile, we should be supplying Ukraine. We could produce, when this war started, about 3,000 shells a month. That would not last a day in Ukraine. We have been able to up it slowly, but there is no contract signed. It is up to 5,000 shells per month. The artillery shell factories and manufacturers in Canada have more than doubled their production, but the United States Army signed contracts and is getting them built there faster than we are building for ourselves. That is a failure of the government to get things done. The government likes to hang its hat on the new GlobalEye that it announced at CANSEC back in May. It is an asset that we need desperately in the Royal Canadian Air Force, especially with what is happening today, but sadly, the Defence Investment Agency and the Secretary of State for Defence Procurement failed to consult with the Royal Canadian Air Force. The media reported that the RCAF was as surprised as anyone else, since it had not even drafted the final version of the statement of requirement. The argument is used that the platforms out there did not have all the standards that we require. However, one, how do they know this when they did not talk to the air force about what it needs? Two, there were at least three competitors out there, two of them using the Bombardier Global 6500 as their basis, and for whatever reason, the government announced that it was partnering with Saab and that it was going to be a preferred supplier on this procurement, without talking to Boeing, without talking to Saab, without talking to Bombardier and without talking to L3Harris, which employs over 1,000 people in Montreal alone. If we want to talk about a symbiotic relationship, Bombardier-L3Harris is an interesting one. Boeing has the proven E-7, and instead we are going with an aircraft that has some operational shortfalls and cannot even do 360 radar, never mind having the proper connectivity. As such, there are major concerns with that procurement. If we are going to give unprecedented powers under Bill C-40 to the minister, would that not open it up so they could do more sole-sourcing based upon who they know and give Liberal insiders, friends and well-connected manufacturers the contracts, rather than talking to the user to ensure we are buying the kit and equipment we need to protect Canada in the best way possible? The replacement of the CF-18s has also been a disaster. The secretary of state is a former fighter pilot, and I respect his service to Canada, but he knows that the CF-18s are well past their due date, despite the life extension that we did as Conservatives. He was the chair of the defence committee back in the day when the government invented the capability gap nonsense and said that we had to increase the number of fighter jets we had. Of course, right away, the government announced it was going to go with a super Hornet, a brand new F-18, to make up the capability gap that we required. That, of course, would open the door to buying all F-18s. However, Boeing and Bombardier got into a mess, and the decision was made by Trudeau to do no more business with Boeing, so there were no more super Hornets. What did the government do? It went out and bought a bunch of used, vintage F-18s from Australia that were as old and worn out as our own fleet of F-18s. It cost us millions and millions of dollars to buy them and refurbish them, and we have nothing to show for it at the end of the day, other than using them as parts for the current fleet we have. The government continues with its F-35 review. That review has been sitting on the Prime Minister’s desk for over a year now. The Department of National Defence has reported back. It is well known what plane the Canadian Armed Forces wants, which is the F-35. Because of political games and grandstanding, the Prime Minister will not announce that we need the F-35, which, I must say, has been said before. Trudeau said that he would never buy the F-35. He put it out to competition, did a complete review and guess what. It was won fair and square and hands down as the best fighter jet, on all four major measurements, as what we need in Canada. We are already in the process of purchasing the first 16 jets and there will be another 14 after that. Our F-18s are old and worn out. We cannot wait for the Prime Minister to keep playing his political games and grandstanding with the United States on this when we need a fighter jet in service today so we can train up the next generation of pilots and air crew to support that fleet. It has been so bad here that we are already hearing rumours that members of the Canadian Armed Forces are being asked to turn in their rucksacks and sleeping bags. The Liberals bought a bunch of sleeping bags that do not even work at below -20°C. There are no sleeping bags. There is a shortage of tactical vests. Everybody has been asked to hand them back in. Guys are going through basic training saying that there are not enough uniforms. They are all getting worn out and we have not bought any new ones, so they have to turn their uniforms back in through basic training. It is so sad to hear that our guys who are deployed are begging, borrowing and stealing from our allies to get proper kits when they are serving in places like Latvia and on Operation Reassurance across Europe. There are things that we need to buy right away, but we are not hearing from the government. We need new tanks. Where are they? We need ground-based air defence systems after witnessing what is happening. There have been no requests for information of any of the companies out there. We have heard over and over again that we are short on military housing in this country. We are 6,700 residential housing units short in supplying the current demand, and that is not happening at any speed. To make up 6,700, even over 10 years, we would have to build over 600 a year, and we are not doing this. Three years ago, I think 32 homes were built for the armed forces. This is not of high importance to the Liberals. The Liberals have done some things. They bought the Global 6500 as an executive jet to fly ministers of the Crown around, so everybody flies around in comfort. The Prime Minister did not like the Polaris aircraft we had as the executive jet for international travel, so the Liberals had to go out and buy some new Airbus CC-330 Husky aircraft just so he could be in a luxurious aircraft. The Liberals are good at making announcements and reannouncements about preferred suppliers. They have done some of these things two times, three times and four times now, but as I just pointed out, they are bad at signing contracts. A case in point is the 155 artillery shells. The Liberals are great at creative accounting. That is how they got up over 2%. It was not actual investment in the Canadian Armed Forces. They gave pay raises, low-hanging fruit and well overdue, but they turned around and started clawing them back, and increasing rent hikes and changing the living differential for those who are posted off base. We are witnessing right now another cut coming to our armed forces. They are looking for 10% savings right now. We already went through this under Trudeau, where the Liberals cut $2.7 billion over three years. This year alone, the cut to the main estimates would amount to $2.9 billion in one year in the Prime Minister’s efforts to find savings. There is a lot more I could say on this, but I will just say that we are going to take time at committee to study this. This is the third iteration of it, but Bill C-40 would increase the opportunity for political interference and decrease accountability, transparency and protection to our taxpayers. We also know that the Liberal government has a history of corruption. By giving it this type of unvetted access to $1 billion at a time, we are worried this would turn into a major scandal.
