Mr. Speaker, we have been discussing with our NATO allies the requirements for this kind of a force. Next week at the Defence Planning Board meetings in Brussels these commitments will be examined in greater detail.
I will take the hon. member's comment as a representation that Canada should offer air support. That will be very interesting. Other members may have a different view but we want to hear the views of all members before we decide.
The hon. member also talked about the overstretching of Canadian forces. He knows that was a legitimate argument to make 18 months ago. As a result of the deliberations of the committee of which he was a member, the white paper signalled an intent to put more people into the sharp end of the army. We are now recruiting so that we have more people available for such duty.
I also underscore the fact that with the pullback from Croatia, Canada now has significantly fewer people in the field than we had six months ago. The criticisms the hon. member has been making this morning are not fully justified by the operational facts today.