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Transcript
The Honourable Bill Graham, Minister of Defence, gives a media availability following the deployment of the DART
16h30 - January 6, 2005
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NOTE: The following transcript is presented in the language(s) in which it occurred. There is no translation available. We are providing the transcript for your information.
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Captain Andy Coxhead: to introduce the Minister of National Defence, Mr. Bill Graham.
The Hon. Bill Graham: Thank you very much Captain, and I'm here with Admiral Maddison, the Director, or DCDS, and we're really here to just answer questions. We had an opportunity to talk to the troops, see them off on the aircraft. I have to tell you it's with a sense of real excitement and we managed to see them go. And, and they're very excited too. They know they're going to do fabulous work to help people who really need it in that area and we're very proud of them. And I know they're going to do wonderful things. So...
Question: Monsieur Graham, les, les représentants de la Croix Rouge au Sri Lanka (inaudible) disaient hier que ça aurait été beaucoup mieux si le DART était arrivé la semaine dernière. (Inaudible) déployer. Un, qu'est-ce que vous répondez à ces critiques-là? Le deuxième, (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Mais, je suis bien content d'entendre que la Croix Rouge pense que le DART aurait dû être là avant parce qu'il y a d'autres qui disent on n'aurait jamais dû envoyer le DART. Donc, il y a toujours des controverses autour de ça. Moi je suis, j'aurais, j'étais toujours, le militaire était prêt à envoyer le DART (inaudible), mais le gouvernement a sagement décidé qu'il a fallu avoir l'avis des gens locaux, surtout le gouvernement local, de l'endroit propice et on a choisi ça, et maintenant, c'est en, nous sommes en train d'y aller et c'est ça qui est important. Et je suis certain qu'ils vont performer de fortes bien-être pour les, pour les gens locaux. Donc, c'est le moment (inaudible) de concentrer sur le futur et pas sur le passé.
Question: Monsieur Graham, (inaudible) peut-être avoir une équipe plus facile à (inaudible).
The Hon. Bill Graham: C'est une bonne question et nous allons exactement examiner ça. À un certain moment, on avait pensé, par exemple, d'envoyer juste la partie du DART responsable pour la purification de l'eau. Mais nous n'avons, nous avons choisi de l'envoyer le tout entier, parce que le gouvernement de Sri Lanka eux-même ont décidé qu'on avait besoin du, des soins médicaux, en plus le engineering, la capacité d'engineering aussi. Donc, dans ces circonstances, le DART entier était nécessaire et même voulu. Mais vous avez raison de dire que nous devons examiner toute éventualité dans le futur.
Yes.
Question: (Inaudible) the DART perhaps (inaudible) just to get a (inaudible) already on the ground (inaudible). At the same time, you were under a lot of public pressure and media pressure to send the DART. (Inaudible) perhaps (inaudible) for the political reasons of showing the Canadian flag than for practical reasons we're offering help?
The Hon. Bill Graham: No, I really wouldn't accept that analysis. The DART is going because it is complementary to the other efforts that Canada has made in the region. We have provided NGO's with an enormous amount of money. The Canadian people are providing them with money and the Canadian government's matching that money. And that will enable local NGO's to do what they have to do and they're doing it well. And they're doing a wonderful service. But this, which is a military highly professional group of people will be able to do something nobody else will be able to do. In fact, they absolutely doubled the water purification capacity just yesterday. So instead of serving 5,000 people, they can now serve 10,000 people by virtue of having a double capacity. That's the type of thing the military can manage.
They're going to have the clinic there. They're going to be able to support the local clinics. They're going to have an engineering capacity and a command post. I do not believe that there is another group of people in the world with the technical and professional capacity that would be better than this group that I just managed to watch get on that plane that are going to go over and bring great things to the people of Sri Lanka. So I don't think there's any apology for sending the DART. On the contrary, we should be very proud of it.
Question: (Inaudible) given any thought to perhaps creating a smaller, lighter, more mobile DART group?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Yeah, that, that's a very legitimate question. And the Admiral, who's responsible for, for operations, we've discussed this. There's no question at one time, as I said in French, we were thinking of just sending the water purification unit. But in fact, the government of Sri Lanka pointed out that all the hospitals in the area have been destroyed, that the clinic would also be helpful. And then, the engineering capacity became helpful and it was decided to send the whole DART. So in these circumstances, the whole of the DART was desired by the local government, and I think the whole of the DART is what gives it that value added on top of just one, any one of those individual units by themselves.
In other circumstances, we might do that. We're not sending as many trucks, as I understand, at this time, Admiral, or some of the heavy equipment that we would have maybe when we sent it to Turkey because it's not the same demand. So it's adjustable and we will be looking in the future for what I believe is an extraordinarily important asset for Canada and for the world, the way in which it can be managed in a way which, true, we could be quicker with it and we can be lighter on our feet. We learn from every experience.
Question: (Inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Well, I can promise you that in this circumstance, any delay in terms of sending the DART were more around the issue of whether it was appropriate, dealing with the local governments, making sure that our international partners also, we weren't falling over them. The, we had, from the very first days, we had aircraft retained. And as you see, now we have the aircraft here to take it over. So we've been able to service the DART. We've never had a problem in Canada, a military airlift issue where we weren't able to obtain Antinovs (ph) or some other form of strategic lift to be able to deal with it. The review, the military review or the Defence Review we're going into will be considering the relationship between strategic lift and tactical lift, and we'll be looking at it. It's a matter of expense and it's a matter of availability from other sources. And we'll definitely look at that.
Question: (Inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Well, I think when the Prime Minister's going to be in India, which he was, you know, this was a trip that was planned for a long time, Sri Lanka's as close to India, you know, is very close to India. I'm thrilled that he's going to go to Sri Lanka. I do hope he has an opportunity to go and see the DART in operation. I think he should go to Sri Lanka in the region and the opportunity to go to Thailand and talk to the Thai authorities, tie in Canadian aid with what they're doing. It's an excellent one for the Prime Minister. As you know, he personally has a, had a lot of experience in terms of development issues because of his experience as Finance Minister and his international experience, and I think he'll bring something, some value added to bear in the region in that area.
Question: (Inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: No, all I can say is that we have received a list from the international authorities as to what they're looking for. They're looking for helicopters, they're looking for various other assets. We are examining that list and the military will provide an examination of the list to the government, and say well, this is what we could supply and here's how we could get it there and then the government will make a decision in the light of our other aid effort, whether it would be appropriate. But we're not there yet. We're at the examination stage.
Question: Comment est-ce que c'est que le premier ministre (Inaudible) justement au Sri Lanka, ayant (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Non, mais je crois que, il, il est déjà dans la région. Il est, il est en Indes. Et je crois que être en Indes et juste à côté de Sri Lanka, ça serait dommage qu'il ne visite pas Sri Lanka. Les Sri Lankans eux-mêmes veulent l'avoir comme, comme hôte, et ça serait une (inaudible) possibilité de voir ce que nous fournissons, nous les Canadiens, en aide en Sri Lanka et en même temps, il peut visiter aussi Thailand. Comme je disais en anglais, le premier ministre lui-même a énormément d'expérience en développement international à cause de son expérience comme ministre des Finances. Il peut apporter beaucoup de sagesse pour ces problèmes à long terme qui, que tout le monde commencent à examiner.
Donc, je crois que c'est une bonne idée pour lui de visiter, encore que, que l'Indes.
Question: (Inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Pardon?
Question: Est-ce que le Canada (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Est-ce que, nous sommes en train d'examiner (inaudible) de monde, et on va fournir une liste de ce que nous avons, nos capacités. C'est pas juste les hélicoptères. Il y a d'autres formes de demandes aussi. Mais comme je disais en anglais, c'est très préliminaire la liste, et nous, nous fournissons des réponses bientôt.
Question: Mr. Graham, (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Well, I think every experience that the military has, they always run the course of looking at how we can reform our, our instruments, how we can deliver better. What are the, what are the machinery we need to do it. And that's really been my experience since I've been minister. So there's no doubt about it. We'll be looking at this experience to see whether or not we should have had different type of materiel, whether we would deliver it differently. Every experience is that.
But I have to tell you. In circumstances of what we're seeing today, this group of people that I had the opportunity of talking out there, are highly professional, highly motivated. They're going to have a capacity to do, deliver clean water, double what we originally thought, to 10,000 people a day in a way that is very, very necessary, timely medical care and an engineering capacity as well. Plus the command post that makes this a very unusual component, an unusually complete unit that many other units don't have. So let's see how it works. My view is we're going to look, look at it carefully, but my view is having watched them go with their enthusiasm and with their professionalism, we're all going to be proud of what they do and we'll learn lessons. But it's going to be a great experience.
Question: (Inaudible) on missions that we're (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: I was told by, by the officer responsible for getting them there that the roads are in fairly good condition up until you get right very near where they have to go and then the monsoons have caused a fair bit of damage. But obviously, they'll be able to get in. The troops themselves are, you know, this is not going to be picnic for them. They're going to be living in tents. They'll have to create floors for them. I heard describing how they have to dig a trench around the tents, and it's, these are hardened troops. These are people that are used to battle conditions. These are people that have been through hard, hard conditions. They're going to survive. But this is not going to be, this is not going to be easy. This is a big challenge, but they're up to it. I think it's going to be great.
Question: (Inaudible) water to purify. I wonder (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Yeah, I know. Previously, we said 50,000 litres a day, but the Admiral was telling that at the last minute, they were able to say no, we can, we can increase that capacity to 100,000 litres a day. So that in fact would mean that approximately 10,000 people could be serviced rather than 5,000 people.
Question: Est-ce que (inaudible) d'autre que Canadien (inaudible) qu'on n'est pas rendu à un processus d'identification (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Non, c'est pas une question d'identification. C'est une question de, de fournir un aide qui est nécessaire et propice et bien pour ce qui est nécessaire dans la région. On est là pour ça. On n'est pas pour s'identifier.
Question: (Inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Pardon?
Question: Pour, pour les Canadiens dont les familles (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Oh excusez-moi. Je croyais que vous parliez du DART.
Question: Est-ce que (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Ah, ça c'est vraiment, j'ai parlé ce matin à Monsieur Harder et comme le premier ministre a dit, il faut jamais perdu l'espoir. Mais le, je sais que le, les Affaires étrangères font énormément de travail avec tous les responsables dans la région pour, pour faire les traces des gens. On n'a pas perdu d'espoir, mais on essaie d'avoir autant d'information possible. Et c'est, c'est un triste devoir.
My last question, then I'm going to leave.
Question: (Inaudible) the DART team, why (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Pardon?
Question: Is the Prime Minister (inaudible) the DART team (inaudible)?
The Hon. Bill Graham: Well, he'll be in Sri Lanka. He's, I hope he will have an opportunity to do so, but (inaudible) will depend on his schedule and we haven't discussed that. We're just learning now obviously how he's going to reorganize his trip. I'd like him to see the DART team, but on the other hand, I know the Prime Minister. He wants to be useful and he doesn't want to interfere with the work of, of relief, so it'll all have to factor in as to what, what's, what's appropriate in the circumstances. But let's hope he can get there.
Okay? Thank you very much everybody. Thank you.
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