Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. In fact, the minister cannot brag about the present state of the Canadian forces.
Globally, we are still seen as pygmies as far as our army goes, compared to the international force. There is no doubt that all the equipment is obsolete. Our forces have dropped from 87,000 to 57,000. We were unable to continue our action in Afghanistan because we did not have the human and materiel resources to do so.
Clearly, some things will have to change. But I would like to take advantage of the question from my colleague to remind the House that the Bloc Quebecois does not necessarily oppose an increase in funding for National Defence. However, we would like to have what I was calling for earlier, which is a clear national defence policy.
Taxpayers, the ones footing the bill, must decide what kind of army they now want. Will we put more money into ground forces, the navy, or the air force? These are things we must look at closely. There is an order of priority and we agree that funding will eventually have to be made available, but a clear policy will be needed.
In the meantime, I urge the minister, much as my colleague did, not to brag too much. As for the contribution of Canadian forces in international conflicts, even though we are recognized as having expertise in peacekeeping missions, the things our forces can do right now are very limited.
He must release his national defence policy as soon as possible and the Minister of Foreign Affairs should do likewise with his foreign affairs policy, so that they can be linked together and a clear policy produced on the type of actions we now wish to undertake in international peacekeeping missions and in missions that are perhaps a bit more aggressive. It is up to taxpayers to decide. The government must consult the public in order to come up with a clear defence and foreign affairs policy.