(Return tabled) Question No. 953 Hon. Ralph Goodale: With regard to the Canadian Armed Forces: (a) how many active members are currently enlisted in the Canadian Forces, broken down by (i) Royal Canadian Air Force, (ii) Royal Canadian Navy, (iii) Land Forces, (iv) location of current deployment, for each of (i) through (iii); (b) what is the net change in strength of each branch since 2006; (c) how many Canadian Forces members are officers and how many are non-commissioned members; (d) of the officer ranks, how many are senior officers and how many are general staff; (e) of the active Canadian Forces members, how many are employed i ...[+++]n (i) the trades of the combat arms, namely artillery, armoured, or infantry, (ii) non-combat roles; (f) of the active Canadian Forces members deployed during the combat mission in Afghanistan, how many were employed in (i) the trades of the combat arms, (ii) in a supporting or logistical role; (g) how many public servants are currently employed by the Canadian Forces, broken down by location of employment; and (h) since 2006, what is the yearly change in strength of (i) the regular force, (ii) the reserve force, (iii) civilian employees of the Department of National Defence?

Each Member State retains the competence to decide whether to deploy in-flight security officers on aircraft registered in that Member State and on flights of air carriers licensed by it as well as to ensure, in accordance with paragraph 4.7.7 of Annex 17 to the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and under the terms of that Convention, that such officers are government personnel who are specially selected and trained, taking into account the required security and safety aspects on board an aircraft.

We consider it a milestone in the process of European integration: for the first time the military top brass of all fifteen European countries understand that the European skies are not anyone’s property and that a balance must be struck – at the highest possible level in terms of quality – between the defence requirements of all Member States and the safety requirements that are the main concern of the customers, that is to say European citizens.

We consider it a milestone in the process of European integration: for the first time the military top brass of all fifteen European countries understand that the European skies are not anyone’s property and that a balance must be struck – at the highest possible level in terms of quality – between the defence requirements of all Member States and the safety requirements that are the main concern of the customers, that is to say European citizens.

Whereas the reduction to 60 % of the intervention price of the threshold triggering the 'safety net' mechanism as referred to in Article 6 (4) of Regulation (EEC) No 805/68 creates the danger of a speculative fall in market prices in certain Member States; whereas, in order to discourage such speculation and prevent a downward spiral of this type, the prices awarded should be modulated on the basis of the market price trends subsequently recorded in cases where the tendered price is higher than the applicable market price; whereas, in the interests of simplification, the amounts of the increase referred to in Article 6 (5) should be ad ...[+++]opted as fixed amounts, which should continue to differ on the basis of which intervention arrangements apply;

One of the things we've heard is that because the staff officers haven't been in the field—and I think you are an exception to that because you've been close to some action fairly recently, so I certainly wouldn't put you in that category—there's a feeling on some of the bases we've been to that people in Ottawa are so removed from the day-to-day experiences of the soldiers in the field that that they don't have a good grasp of what's happening on the ground.