Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his remarks which I listened to with great interest.
I want him to know I have quite a bit of sympathy for his comments on the closing of Collège Saint-Jean. It is indeed a beautiful military college with a great history and tradition. I want to remind him that the government in closing Saint-Jean also closed Royal Roads in British Columbia. A lot of my family live in Victoria and I know Royal Roads very well. It was a very fine military college with a great tradition.
All Canadians feel pain when cost cutting affects jobs and the people of our regions. I sympathize with the Bloc member and all Bloc members when they bring that kind of position forward in the House. However I would submit to my hon. colleague that the government did approach this matter, certainly in the closing of the colleges over which it did have control with great equality of spirit.
Is the hon. member familiar with Royal Roads? Can he speak with the same passion about this college near Victoria as he does with Collège Saint-Jean? Does he not agree that however unfortunate it was to close Collège Saint-Jean and Royal Roads given that we had more college space than we needed in these cost cutting times, the government really acted very responsibly and with a sense of fairness?