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Transcription

Le Chef d'état-major de la Défense, le Général Rick Hillier, répond aux questions des représentants des médias pendant la séance d'information sur le budget tenue à huis clos

le 23 février 2005

NOTE:  Cette transcription est présentée dans la langue utilisée lors de la conférence de presse. Elle vous est  fournie à titre d'information seulement. Il n'y a pas de traduction disponible.

Question: (Inaudible) what do you think?

Gen. Rick Hillier: I think this is actually a very good day for the Canadian Forces. I really do. I think it's a good day for the men and women in uniform and it's a good day for our country and that means it's a good day for all 32 million Canadians.

Question: So what's good about it?

Gen. Rick Hillier: Well, we've got an investment and a commitment from our government to rebuild the Canadian Forces, to give us the necessary resources to be able to transform it here and to allow us to start right now, not wringing our hands but rolling up our sleeves and actually getting on with doing the work that we have to do. It allows us to start the increase in size of the Canadian Forces and allows us to fix the support base and get on with that business and allows us to commence a good program of modernization and, as we do all three intelligently, to transform the Canadian Forces into exactly what Canadians need - something more relevant, something more responsive and something that is tangibly valuable for all Canadians.

Question: Have you turned a corner here, sir?

Question: (Inaudible)

Gen. Rick Hillier: I'll come to one question at a time. Go ahead.

Question: The real money starts in years four and five.

Gen. Rick Hillier: Well, what we see here is that we have money to allow us to start all the things I talked about, that is to say to commence the increase in the Canadian Forces, to commence fixing the base of the Canadian Forces and to allow us to get the modernization program rolling the way we want. We did not get to where we are in the Canadian Forces in a stretched situation in one year and it's going to take more than one year, clearly, to get out of that situation. But what is good about this, what I see, is an accord between the government and the people of Canada and the men and women in the Canadian Forces for a longer term investment and support to them in what they do every day for our country.

Question: Is the five and six hundred million that you're getting in the first two years, sir ---

Gen. Rick Hillier: I'll come back to you, Steve. Let me get this guy over here. I'll come back to you next.

Question: Yeah, it just doesn't look like we'll be part of BMD and that relationship with the United States to defend our country and our continent in support. What do you think about the fact it doesn't look like we're going to be involved in the continental missile defence?

Gen. Rick Hillier: The Government of Canada has clearly said it'll make that decision and when it does I'll respond to it just like every other Canadian, also as the Chief of Defence Staff. I'll simply tell you that our relationship with the United States is inclusive of much more than just a BMD agreement certainly and that we in the military have a certain part to play. We'll continue to do that. Our relationship with the United States will continue to be strong. We share this continent and we share a lot of history, a lot of tradition, a lot of values, a lot of culture. That will continue to be the case. I'll respond as the Chief of Defence Staff and get on with my business when the government makes its decision on BMD and articulates that for us.

Question: Some people have called for a one and a half billion dollar increase in the first year to the baseline budget. You're getting 500 million the first year, 600 the second. Is that going to enable you guys to address some of the issues that are facing the forces right now like (inaudible)?

Gen. Rick Hillier: Absolutely. It is going to enable us to address some of the issues facing us right now and clearly we need a period of time to be able to ramp our program up and to make best use of the larger amounts coming a little later but that money upfront allows us to commence the three things I talked about in particular, allows us to get on to shaping the Canadian Forces in the way that Canadians will need and allow us therefore to also more intelligently use the money that comes in greater amounts in later years. But this is a commitment and for the first time in my knowledge - now I've been the CDS for two and a half weeks so my knowledge is fairly limited - that we've had a longer term commitment, what I believe is an accord from our government, from the people of Canada with their men and women in uniform that they are going to invest over this five-year period to give us the resources to do what we need to do.

Question: Is there enough money?

Question: Where is the need the greatest right now? Where is the need the greatest to you in the forces right now?

Gen. Rick Hillier: Well, we need to fix the base. We need to fix the pieces that allow us to conduct all our operations. We've said that over this last months and several years here and that's where the vast amount of money at the start will go but also part of that money will go into commencing the preparations for the increase in size of the Canadian Forces and at the same time we will have a parallel program of modernization and we'll accelerate that program as we go through this next two to five years here. So the greatest is the support base. We're going to address that need right up front and get on with repairing it and that allows us to be successful in years two to five.

Question: General, was our international credibility at stake? You've had extensive international experience. Were we pulling our weight on the international stage and will this money change that in any way?

Gen. Rick Hillier: Well, first of all, I think the money will change it. It'll give us even better tools to be able to go on the international stage and do what our government has said, that is give the world more of Canada and more of Canadian leadership. You cannot have that Canadian leadership on the military side without a substantial footprint in places where you decide to go. I don't think our credibility on the world stage where we go is at question here and I speak from immediate past experience of my time in Afghanistan. Canadian Forces men and women, not just the army on the ground in Afghanistan and supporting that mission, had immense credibility and that reflected directly back to our country. It'll make it better is what it will do.

Question: Is this enough of an increase to cover the cost of the 5,000 new troops, the 3,000 reserves and enough left over for equipment? I mean how does that all break down?

Gen. Rick Hillier: Well, first of all, yes it is. We've got the money that we articulated as needed for the increase of 5,000 regular force men and women and 3,000 reservists. We've got the money reflected in this budget statement to fix the base and also to get the capital program flowing in the direction that we want and to give us the necessary capabilities to be able to transform this Canadian force. Yes, it does.

Question: What equipment are you talking about?

Gen. Rick Hillier: A whole variety of equipment right now and our capabilities will be laid out in this next couple of months here to clearly bring forth what we need to be able to transform the Canadian Forces. So we'll get to that.

Question: What are you going to spend that 3.7 billion that's related to the policy statement? What are you going to spend that on?

Gen. Rick Hillier: Well, first of all, as I said, we're going to start in a common sense way. We're going to fix that base, fix that support piece. We're going to increase the size of the Canadian Forces which puts us in a great position then post defence policy statement release to be able to move the Canadian Forces forward and we're going to continue to modernize the Canadian Forces and as we do all three we're going to make sure we do it in a way which allows the Canadian Forces to transform and that'll be articulated in the defence policy statement when our government releases that as its policy.

Question: Does that include (inaudible) ships?

Gen. Rick Hillier: I'm not going to talk about specific pieces at this point in time here because we're still working all those issues right now. What I'm saying is we're going to have a Canadian Forces that is going to be visibly relevant to Canadians and tangibly valuable to them. This is a good day for those men and women in uniform, I'll tell you this. It's a good day for Canadians and I think it strengthens our relationship between those young men and women in uniform who are the credentials of the other 32 million Canadians here and I think that's a good thing for our country. Okay, that's it.

Question: Est-ce que c'est bon? Est-ce que ça suffit? Est-ce que ça répond à vos besoins?

Gen. Rick Hillier: Oui, c'est pour nous pour commencer le programme de réparation, un programme d'augmentation, un programme de modernisation certainement. C'est bon pour commencer des programmes comme ça. Tout valable c'est le commitment pendant cinq ans, pas seulement un an, d'avoir un réinvestissement dans les Forces canadiennes. Donc pour nous ça suffit et ça c'est bon. Thank you, folks. I'm being dragged out. Thank you.

Question: Well, you can answer a few more questions if you want.

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