QUESTION PERIOD — National Defence
Canadian Armed Forces
April 16, 2024
Government leader, earlier this month, the Ottawa Citizen reported Canadian Forces personnel who were sent to Ottawa for specialized cyber operations training had to rely on food donations to feed themselves. Staff members of the college where they received this training took it upon themselves to set up a food cupboard so that these military members would not go hungry. These soldiers also went months without being reimbursed for expenses, creating further hardship.
Leader, how does the Trudeau cabinet justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to feed themselves during so‑called affordability summits when Canadian soldiers must rely on food donations?
Thank you. It is a good question because there is no good answer to a situation where Canadians serving the country are put in a position where they are not properly taken care of under those circumstances. I’ll certainly raise this very preoccupying issue with the minister.
The Trudeau government has failed our Canadian Armed Forces and the men and women who serve. In addition to cost-of-living and housing concerns, the soldiers who complete their initial cyber training are waiting between 18 months to 2 years to move on to the next phase of training due to delays in processing security screenings.
Leader, what is being done to fix this issue?
I’m not in a position to comment on the details of that, only to underline the importance of security screening for all those who are in sensitive positions, but, again, I will certainly add that to my inquiries.
