SoVote

Ms. Andréanne Larouche (Shefford, BQ)

Apr/5/22 12:21:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about another aspect she only touched upon, namely the difficulty in recruiting. Does she agree that the Liberals, by filibustering at the Standing Committee on National Defence and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women when they were reviewing the cases of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces, only made it more difficult to recruit women? Their objective is 25% by 2026. They are far from that number. Moreover, given the new allegations made public recently, they are not getting any closer. Does she agree that they should apply the recommendations in the Deschamps report, which the Liberals still have not implemented?

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Context: House Hansard - 53 - Apr/5/22

Ms. Heather McPherson

Apr/5/22 12:21:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, of course, I agree 100% with my colleague from the Bloc Québécois. Of course, we should be implementing those so that we can help recruit women. We also need to bring forth the feminist foreign policy. The government has promised this for some time and has not brought forward our feminist foreign policy. We need to do everything we can to make sure that our military is a welcoming space for women who want to contribute and who want to represent Canada. I thank her for her advocacy on this issue.

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Context: House Hansard - 53 - Apr/5/22

Hon. Michael Chong

Apr/5/22 12:35:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her question. She is right. The Canadian Armed Forces has problem with recruitment and needs to recruit more people. That said, according to the NATO report, we also need to increase our military equipment budgets to make sure our military has the tools it needs to do its work here and in Europe.

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Context: House Hansard - 53 - Apr/5/22

Mr. Alex Ruff

Apr/5/22 4:07:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, again, it is not an easy answer, but it is all of the above. We need to invest in our recruiting. Almost a decade ago, I tried to write a master's paper, and I failed miserably at that too, specifically about why we need to invest our best people within the Canadian Armed Forces into the recruiting system so we have that flexibility to recruit the best. As we all know, the huge labour shortages the country is facing, it is a shortage across most of the western world, so we have to get those right people. The other key aspect the government could do to help fix this is on the procurement side. One of the things that we are actually lacking within the government, in my opinion, is enough expertise within defence procurement alone. If we can invest more to get those quality people into that, it would allow the procurement cycle to improve. By investing in training, investing in support for families and investing in our members, we can never go wrong.

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Context: House Hansard - 53 - Apr/5/22

Ms. Monique Pauzé (Repentigny, BQ)

Apr/5/22 4:35:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, let me begin by complimenting my colleague from Kings—Hants on his French. It was very nice to hear him. He said that the government already started making investments in 2017, but there are three major problems in the armed forces: procurement, recruitment, and retention. For example, with respect to procurement, forces members have been asked to buy their own boots lately because the government has been unable to provide them. As for recruitment, the target is to have 25% women, but with all the sexual misconduct cases, which the government tried to cover up, it will not be easy to recruit women. Finally, with respect to staff retention, the family structure has changed, and the constant moving around does not entice people to join the armed forces. Has my hon. colleague considered these three major problems, which require investments?

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