Mr. Speaker, I want to draw to your attention the fact that the minister mentioned, at the beginning of his statement, that he wanted to inform the House of the latest developments.
I wish to remind the minister and his government that it is not the first time that we are being informed. Troops have already been deployed and, so far, there has been no vote and practically no debate in the House. The Bloc Quebecois wanted to say that before anything else because it is one of the things that we insisted upon.
When the decision is made to deploy troops to a theater of operations that could be dangerous, it seems to me that it would be important that this issue be submitted to the House, not only for information purposes, but for debate and discussion. I want to remind the minister and the government that members are here in the House not only to express their views, but to vote, which is the most important thing.
We are here today after a one week break during which we read in the papers that the minister and the government had just decided to send another 1,000 troops to Afghanistan. It is the second deployment. Members will remember that the same government decided earlier to send 2,000 troops with a tactical naval group and the House was never asked to vote on that. That is one area where the government deserves criticism.
On the subject of whether it is important to send troops, I think the Bloc has been very responsible since the start of this crisis. Everything since the September 11 attack has gone into a legitimate defence of the Americans and the international coalition, as everyone acknowledges.
The UN Security Council, in two resolutions, has said that the United States was attacked and it can legitimately defend itself. Support also came from NATO. This is the first use of article 5 of the NATO agreement, which provides that an attack on one of the signatory states shall be an attack on the 18 others. Here too, there is international agreement that the Americans must have help and that the international coalition is taking symbolic steps to show that we are all in the same boat.
Not surprisingly, since September 11 everything has gone into a military response. The Bloc supported the bombing initially, but, the more it went on, the harder it was for us. Especially since last week, when the Taliban regime totally melted, it seems to me it is time to move on to something else.
We also support the government on the deployment of troops to provide humanitarian aid. This is where we are at. The country has been in a state of devastation for decades. This new attack on it has worsened things. Humanitarian convoys must get through with essential foodstuffs, if we want to protect the civilian population from catastrophe. They have already suffered enough with the bombings. It is likely several hundred civilians have been killed, but for those who sought refuge and headed to the Pakistani border, help must be provided now. Those coming home need help too. There are no more infrastructures, no more food and likely no more water.
We must help these people, and on this point we agree with the government. We cannot wait for a decision from the UN. For the time being, it cannot be done under the aegis of the UN. The combined force must go in. We can deploy people in 48 hours, give the order for them to prepare and move them out in ten days or so. If this were done under the UN, it would take much longer, and there would be the risk of a civilian catastrophe.
While this may be an appropriate measure, the army's capability is a different matter. We have already sent 2,000 troops to Bosnia. Incidentally, I am proud to say that I will go and visit them. I am leaving for Bosnia with two colleagues to see how things are going for the Royal 22nd Regiment.
We have already sent 2,000 troops and we are sending another 1,000 from the PPCLI. I am taking this opportunity to salute them. This is the light infantry regiment that came to my riding during the ice storm. I want to tell them that the people of Saint-Jean recognize the work that these soldiers did for them.
Are the army's structures and resources not already stretched to the limit? We begin to have reservations when the minister says that if we are asked to send more troops we will. I think this would generate an incredible amount of stress on members of the Canadian forces and their families, because their turn will come again much more often. This will be a problem until we have an adequate recruitment level to ensure that the stress imposed on members of the Canadian forces and their families, and on the army's ability to intervene, is not too big.
We have a bit of a problem with the vote issue, but we will support the government regarding the sending of 1,000 troops for humanitarian purposes. We will keep our fingers crossed and hope that these soldiers are not involved in a severe conflict. The term light infantry says it all. If the PPCLI is involved in hard and ferocious battles, it could suffer casualties. But we must make this commitment to now help civilian populations in Afghanistan.