Mr. Chairman, you said that this kind of motion is not needed, but I would prefer we adopt it, so that when Department of Finance officials come before the committee, given the very tight deadlines, they will have all the information. I do not want to prolong the debate, but it seems that $4 billion have already been spent in Afghanistan.
I do not know how those funds were allocated. I would like us to know. And what is being planned over the next few years? I believe that the mission in Afghanistan can be seen as an unavoidable constraint on the federal government's room to manoeuvre. It is my view that the committee be informed of the projections of both the Department of Finance and Department of National Defence.
My motion reads as follows:
That as part of the prebudget consultations of the Standing Committee on Finance, the committee requests that the Department of Finance provide within the next 30 days to the members of the committee the overall budgetary allocation both in percentage terms and in dollar amounts of funds previously allocated as well as future allocations for the next two years, to both the military mission relating to Canada's presence in Afghanistan as well as the humanitarian aid and reconstruction projects associated with this intervention.