Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Team Canada's trip to China gradually became a political show where investments totalling billions of dollars are announced when, in fact, these figures are arrived at by adding contracts signed a long time ago with mere letters of intent regarding eventual contracts, as in the case of the CANDU reactors. In fact, the communique released in Beijing by the Canadian government states that the federal government is not responsible for the accuracy of information relating to investments or to the value of contracts.
Will the Minister of Foreign Affairs admit that the Team Canada mission is essentially a political show, since most of the contracts announced are either only letters of intent or were known long before that trip, and that the government itself refuses to endorse the figures released?