Mr. Speaker, it is a well-known fact that Quebec has traditionally been disadvantaged in the distribution of defence expenditures, of which it receives only 15.8 per cent. With yesterday's budget, the federal government seemed to indicate that such inequity would continue and actually intensify.
The Collège militaire de Saint-Jean, a university-level educational institution, a stronghold of recognized francophone expertise in strategic studies, space science and computer science, the only gateway to a career as a military officer for francophones, the one and only French-speaking military college in Canada, is about to disappear. Removed from this environment, French-speaking military education will become a mere shadow of its former self and be swallowed up by the very unilingual Royal Military College in Kingston.
By axing the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, which is really a French Canadian institution, the federal government is giving a clear indication of how little regard it has for francophones in Quebec and in Canada.