Madam Speaker, I listened with a great deal of interest to the comments made by the member opposite.
I commend the member for his deep interest in the Canadian Armed Forces but at some point we have to fish or cut bait. I am not exactly sure of the position of the Reform Party with respect to procurement policy for the Canadian Armed Forces. I have listened many times and I have heard the Reform Party talk about the wholesale cutting of departments, that what the government has to do first and foremost is to tame that debt and deficit monster. That means wholesale cuts across the board to departmental expenditures.
The member opposite knows full well that out of the non-statutory expenditures of this government, the previous government and the government before it, one of the largest envelopes of non-statutory expenditures is in national defence. What I am trying to ascertain from the member's comments is whether he agrees there should be new expenditures in national defence. If that is the case it may go contrary to what his party said particularly during the last election about going in and cutting those departments.
Is the member in favour or not in favour of the EH-101 contract and its process? Does the member believe and advocate that the government of the day go forward with further expenditures in defence procurement? In particular, I am speaking about the replacement program for the Sea King helicopters. The member mentioned quite correctly that some of the search and rescue and Sea King helicopters have had some difficulty because of their age. Unfortunately there has even been loss of life as some of those helicopters have gone down. I am not necessarily convinced it was because of the age of the helicopters.
I want to seek something clear and unequivocal from the member. Is he in favour of further defence procurement spending, yes or no? If the answer is yes, does he wish to see this government accelerate its procurement policy with respect to new helicopters? Would he and his party support the government spending billions of dollars for the replacement of the Sea King helicopters?
The hon. member talked a great deal about open procurement policies. What he said during his comments was that far too often these things are knee-jerk. Is the member not aware that a House of Commons committee travelled and came up with a report dealing with the future of the Canadian Armed Forces? In response to that report the government came out with the defence white paper which clearly outlines the government's policies with respect to national defence. Last, he says that before these big procurements are finalized they should be debated in the House. Is he an advocate that House time should be spent debating each and every procurement contract of the Government of Canada?