Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak on the subject before us this morning.
The political rhetoric I have heard from the two speakers in the main opposition and the third parties somewhat disappointed me. The tenor of the debate this morning was not the tenor present in the standing special committee of the Senate and the House of Commons in which there was a modicum of consensus. This did not seem to come out on the floor of the House of Commons today. Notwithstanding I should like to get rid of the political rhetoric and talk about some of the reasons my party and I will not be in support of the motion.
Essentially the procurement policies of national defence have been developed over a period of time which has seen a lot of grief with respect to procurement policies. Perhaps at the time they were appropriate to the occasion but now, because of the paring down, the lack of resources, the difficulties with funding, the end of the cold war and the difficulties in planning defence procurement, we have to do it differently.
I believe I can quote the auditor general in his 1993 report as being objective in his major study of defence procurement policies.