Madam Speaker, I make my comments from the national opposition standpoint.
After three and a half years of excellent service our peacekeepers are finally coming home from Bosnia. That is just great. They deserve hearty congratulations for a job well done. During these years our peacekeepers have had to operate under the most difficult of circumstances but they always fulfilled their duties with distinction.
All our troops who have served in the former Yugoslavia have the thanks of the Canadian people and Parliament. To the families of those who were killed in the service of peace, we also pay our deepest respects.
For over a year now the Reform Party has been asking for this day to happen. I refer directly to the statement. I believe there is a coded message in that statement. I draw to the attention of the minister that the last debate in the House occurred on March 29, which was a six-month mandate. That mandate expired at the end of September of this year. Somehow we have extended that to November without consulting the House.
The minister commented that we will be part of a new force. There is no detail of what this new force might be. There is no suggestion of what the criteria might be under which we would participate. There are a lot of questions Canadians are asking. They want the questions answered and the criteria established in the House.
The questions include cost, length of the commitment and whether there is peace to keep. Is there a mandate for our troops when they go? Most important. they want to know we will be part of the decision making, not like with the former Yugoslavia where the contact group was one thing and we more or less put up our hands and said we would go along with what was decided.
We have to look at the UN and the reforms. I know the minister is interested in that. We have to look at the mismanagement that has occurred and the serious doubts we have about UN missions, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia and now Haiti where there appear to be serious problems in terms of conducting the mandate. We have to establish those criteria.
The government has mismanaged the whole affair. I find it difficult since we received the statement only 15 minutes ago. However the minister has said he is not responsible for that.
The debates in the House have brought serious questions forward. I do not believe they have been heard. This summer during a critical time there was a lack of leadership. The minister was unavailable for comment. The Prime Minister was found in a canoe somewhere and gave some very general comments which I found to be very insulting to me as a parliamentarian and to Canadians.
The Reform Party thanks our troops. We demand from Parliament that it set some criteria before we become the 911 UN call number. We must do it in Parliament and not simply in cabinet. We want to return the confidence of the people of Canada to peacekeeping and to the management and leadership the government should be showing.