QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of National Defence
Defence Budget
November 1, 2023
The Treasury Board wants to cut roughly $1 billion from your budget, prompting General Wayne Eyre to say, and I quote, “There’s no way that you can take almost a billion dollars out of the defence budget and not have an impact . . . .”
My question is this: Don’t you think that this decision affects the morale of the Canadian Armed Forces and, especially, that it gives the impression that adding new social programs, as called for by the NDP, is a higher priority for the government than ensuring Canada’s Arctic sovereignty and meeting our NATO commitments?
The letter we received from the Treasury Board clearly indicated there was to be no impact on Canadian Armed Forces’ capabilities, or to the support that we provide to military families. One of the things that I have directed is looking at our administrative processes — the professional services that we contract for, executive travel and such things as consultation reports. I think it is incumbent upon every department of government to make sure that they’re spending Canadian taxpayers’ dollars well, and that they are as efficient as possible. I’ve also been discussing investments that we can make in efficiency and savings with the Department of National Defence.
