I will start by saying that I appreciate my colleague's efforts. The only problem I see at the moment is that he has cast his net very wide. There are all kinds of questions, including environmental damage, industrial espionage, immigration, border services, policing, etc. Several of these questions are beyond our competency. I do not want to repeat what my colleague Mr. Coderre has already said. Our work is not finished. I feel that, if we want to do a study, this is not the way to proceed.
We should decide that our next study will be about continental defence, once we have finished what Mr. Coderre and I were discussing. Then we would establish the terms and parameters of the study. It is absolutely impossible for me to vote on this motion in this way.
In the future, the committee should indicate a preference for several smaller studies, and not a study like this, that could take a year or two because its scope is so broad. I do not want to reject my colleague's work out of hand, because I find it very honourable. But at the moment, I would like us to set this motion aside, and devote our energy to Afghanistan and to the procurements. Then we can discuss the larger file, and the topics that we would like to explore.
I have nothing against talking about continental defence, but how far would we go? In my opinion, we are going too far. I would like to see the committee get together again to establish parameters and terms for the study.