Mr. Speaker, I have discussed this matter with the Premier of Quebec who told me that he could make use of the facilities at Saint-Jean. The federal government no longer needs them because the strength of our military work force is being reduced to 65,000. One can easily understand why the United States, with two million soldiers, has three military colleges. However, with a military work force of 65,000, Canada does not need three military colleges.
However, if these facilities can be of some use to the provincial government or to other agencies, we will be happy to make some arrangements with them because this would save some jobs in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. We are proposing a reasonable solution to a specific problem. The government had no choice but to close some of Canada's military colleges because it had to reduce defence spending. Had we listened to the Leader of the Opposition, not only would we have closed Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, but we would also have shut down CFB Bagotville located in his region.