Minister of National Defence Bill Blair talks Canada’s defence policy, CSC fleet launch

Well, it's a big week for Halifax and for our armed forces in general. The federal government launches construction of the Canadian surface combatant project, the CSC. This is the largest Canadian shipbuilding initiative, they say, since the Second World War. Bill Blair is the Minister of National Defense. He's in town for the launch and to talk more about Canadas new defense policy update that's called Our N Strong and Free. And Minister Blair joins us now on Global News Morning. Good morning, minister. Welcome to Halifax. Thank you very much. Yeah. So tell me about the significance of this news this week and what it means for our viewers here in Halifax. Well, it's it's a huge new investment for the for the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Armed Forces. But it also is a great opportunity, I think for the people of Halifax and for Nova Scotia because it's a very significant investment. It's going to create literally 10s of thousands of jobs here in Nova Scotia and particularly in Halifax. It's going to add about $40 billion to our gross domestic product in Canada, but it's also most importantly going to be delivering a new capability for the Canadian Armed Forces, new service combatant ships, battleships to replace our Halifax frigates that have done great service and, and, and been sailing out of Halifax for over 45 years. But it's time to replace them. And so that work is now underway. So, you know, if you go back to early estimates of how much this was going to cost, it was 26 billion. Now some people saying it could be up anywhere to 80 billion. Why now for this? And how is this price tag balloon, especially when we're in the midst of a housing and affordability crisis in this country? And I think it's really important that we spend Canadian taxpayers dollars very carefully and, and, and, but we also manage both the dollars and the time it takes to deliver this important capability for the real Canadian Navy. On the original cost estimate almost a decade ago was was about $30 billion. On that we we believe that now is likely to be between 50 and $60 billion. There have been some significant additional costs and as a result of some of the design elements that have been placed on these ships. The world is a rapidly evolving place. The the the risk environment is becoming more significant. We need to make sure that we have the right capabilities on these ships so that the Navy can do the job that we require of them. But what we also understand we have a responsibility to manage the cost of these initiatives. And we're working really closely with Irving shipyard and the other shipyards across the country with the Royal Canadian Navy. We we will be signing defense the construction contracts for these ships in the in the coming months, right, not signed yet. So how much work can we actually start without a contract? I think a great deal. There's we've already made very significant investments. We're we're well on track and and, you know, I think there, there's a little bit of, you know, paperwork that needs to be completed and we're going to get it done. But we're, we're exactly right track for the thing. I'm really excited about the opportunity this this week, we're going to start cutting steel. And I think that's what the people of Halifax and the Navy have been waiting for, to start moving this project forward. It's been nearly five years in design and, and now we're actually beginning the work of, of turning that into a reality. And that reality is going to be really important to Canada into our Navy. So we'll have ships one day built here. Who's going to be on those ships when you yourself have said the Canadian Forces is facing a death spiral when it comes to recruitment, Who's going to be on these ships? We're facing that threat if we don't respond to it appropriately. And, and, and frankly, what I, I've been saying very clearly, the Canadian Forces, we're just going to do things differently. We're going to have to recruit far more aggressively. We're going to have to improve our, our hiring processes to get get people in and, and trained up quicker. I think it's going fast is also important And, and making sure that we had last year, we had almost 70,000 Canadians attempted to join the Canadian Armed Forces. We took on less than, you know, a little over 4 to 500 of them. That's not good enough. And frankly, if, if Canadians are looking for an opportunity to serve their country, I believe that that we should be the first to call instead of if they apply to three or four jobs. We want, I want to make sure the Canadian Armed Forces is the 1st to call. I think there is there is no shortage of Canadians who are willing and, and, and strongly desired of an opportunity to serve their country. We're going to give them that opportunity. We're going to improve those recruitment processes. Some of the things that have been problematic for for the armed forces can be overcome by introducing a probationary period, making sure that they their their requirements, both medical and security are relevant and, and timely and, and frankly, we just need to do a better job and we're going to do a better job. Listen, I've only got about a minute or 90 seconds left, but how is morale within your party this week given the by election loss and how are things with the Liberals? For me, it's just a reminder we've got a lot of work to do. And, and, and you know, I, I, I spent 40 years serving my city and, and keeping the, the people in Toronto safe. And I was given an extraordinary opportunity to serve Canadians. And, and frankly, I, for me as the Minister of National Defence, I'm reminded that I've got to deliver for Canadians and the important job I've been given. And that's what I'm going to focus on. You got faith in the Prime Minister, of course, to continue the job. The the Prime Minister, you know, LED us to government and, and has given me this job. I'm, I'm very grateful for the opportunities that I've been given to serve my country. I'm just going to focus on getting that job done. Anybody call you this week to kind of get your thoughts on how things have shaken out with the violence? Everybody knows that I'm pretty focused on the job at hand. I'm, I'm the minister, Canada's minister of National Defence. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got to deliver new capabilities for the Canadian Armed Forces. We're going to solve that that that recruitment problem and retention problem. We've got issues around housing and childcare for those armed forces members and we're going to live up to our international obligations to our to our partners in America and and at NATO. Excellent. That's what I'm focused on. All right, well, listen, thanks for the candid conversation. On a lighter note, Rib Fest is in town this weekend and they're on the show this morning. So they want to know if you want to drop by a Rib Fest on the Dartmouth waterfront. Well, that's an interesting thing. And I'm also going to miss the tattoo because I've got to be out of here. I've got to be out of here tomorrow night and head back for in into Ontario. But you know, this is my third visit as the Minister of National Defense in into Halifax. I was also here during your Fiona and, and the floods and the fires that you experienced 'cause I was the emergency minister then is a great city and a great place to visit. And, and frankly, I had a fabulous time at at Fleet Week last year. I love coming back to health. All right, we'll save you some ribs for next time. Good man. The Minister of National Defense, Bill Blair, joining us on GLOBAL News MORNING.