Mr. Speaker, I ask the parliamentary secretary, to read the remarks I made a few minutes ago, when they are available tomorrow.
The parliamentary secretary claims that we made no suggestions to the government. He really should read what I said, because we made many suggestions to the government, and it ought to consider them. None of the speeches by members on the government side this morning ever mentioned the number of troops it intends to send to Bosnia or the length of time they would have to stay there. None of the speeches made from the government mentioned the type of troops to be sent there. Should they be combat troops, communications troops, engineering troops, medical support troops?
The government has been absolutely silent on this issue since it called this debate. Today, we are asked to debate this issue. We readily admit that it is up to the government to make decisions on foreign policy, but we do not recognize in this debate the commitment made by this government to consult Parliament on foreign policy issues, since they are always hurried consultations. When Parliament is consulted, it is always in a hurry. On the one hand, members of Parliament cannot prepare adequately and, on the other, they know that the government has already made up its mind and decided what to do even before they were consulted. This whole consultation process in the House is nothing but a sham.
When the parliamentary secretary claims that we do not recognize this role of the government, mentioning that the present Leader of the Opposition was a member of the previous government, I simply remind him, because he seems not to have noticed yet, that the Leader of the Opposition resigned from the Conservative government and is now the leader of the Bloc Quebecois.