Welcome to the Senate, minister. Thank you for your public service.

According to a recent CBC investigation, only between 55% and 60% of the Canadian Armed Forces would be able to respond if called upon to deploy. It was also reported that roughly 50% of Canada’s military equipment is unavailable and unserviceable. You yourself recently alluded to the fact that supply problems were an issue for National Defence.

Can you reassure us about the state of the troops and tell us whether the information reported by the CBC is or is not accurate?

The CBC was reporting information that we and the Canadian Armed Forces provided to them.

There are very legitimate concerns about the capability, readiness and deployability of our current assets. There has been a long period — decades — of underinvestment in the maintenance of that equipment and infrastructure.

I will share with you my biggest concern. I spoke very publicly a couple years ago about the fact that, for four consecutive years, we lost more people than we hired. I referred to it as a death spiral. I wasn’t trying to be provocative. I was trying to convey a sense of urgency of what we needed to do.

I’m gratified the current Chief of the Defence Staff and the deputy minister have come forward with a reconstitution plan. It’s going to involve almost doubling the number of people we take in each year, increasing our training capacity and making investments in the infrastructure that are necessary not only to support that training but to support members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

We’re making significant new investments not only in acquiring new equipment but in maintaining what we’ve got. Our capabilities must be significantly enhanced. We’re making the necessary investments.

I will share with you that there is a strong sense of urgency to get this job done within the Canadian Armed Forces and within my office. We’re all working full out on it.

Thank you. We’re counting on you.

In June 2023, the Standing Senate Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs released a report on the Arctic, to which I contributed. One of the 23 recommendations was that the government conduct an assessment of the Canadian Armed Forces’ infrastructure north of the 60th parallel to identify infrastructure that requires repairs and upgrades. The government was asked to release a report by June 2025.

Have you made any progress on this file?

We’ve made some excellent progress with respect to the work since June.

One of the things we acknowledged in our new defence policy was that, while I had done consultation in the North, we needed to do more. We have partners up there and need to treat them respectfully.

In June of this year, I went to Iqaluit. I provided a secure briefing to all the northern premiers.

We have also been meeting extensively with Indigenous Inuit leadership in the region and going into those communities. Doing it without consultation with the people of the North would be a terrible mistake. We need partners up there. We also need their advice. We’ve been doing significant work.

I was recently in Inuvik. We are investing a substantial amount of money through the Government of the Northwest Territories and working with the Gwich’in and the IRC —