Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Port Moody--Coquitlam--Port Coquitlam.
I have to say at the outset that I think my friend from Chatham--Kent Essex really did gild the lily a little bit today in his defence of the government over the last number of months as it tries to respond to what occurred on September 11. I mean that in a couple of senses.
First, I do not think anyone would question that the primary role of government should be to provide protection for citizens of the country and their property. That has to be the first role of any government. There is no question that the record of the Liberal government since it has been in power since 1993 is lamentable when it comes to protecting the lives and property of citizens.
I point to when there was a financial crunch, the first things that got cut were the things that were necessary to protect the lives of Canadian citizens, for example the funding for the RCMP. There was a 28% cut in funding for CSIS. Even now with the new money that has come back in there is less money than there was at the beginning of the Liberal government's reign. The Department of National Defence has become a story of almost mythical proportion. The government has savaged national defence and has failed to back it in many respects.
I simply have to say at the outset that the Liberal record when it comes to providing any kind of support for national security is terrible.
I remind members that a couple of years ago the Deputy Prime Minister was in charge of running a security task force that was to meet periodically to discuss security issues. It met once or twice and then due to lack of interest, it did not meet again. That is simply inexcusable.
My friend from Chatham--Kent Essex who just spoke a few minutes ago said September 11 was a wake up call for us. In a sense he is right but there were many wake up calls along the way that should have alerted the Canadian government to the fact that this is a dangerous world and that there are terrorists around the world who mean to do damage to countries like Canada.
In 1993 there was a bombing at the World Trade Center. Maybe that should have been a little hint that some of those people were out there operating. My friend from Dewdney--Alouette mentioned the Ressam case, a terrorist who came through Canada, lived in Montreal and then tried to enter the United States on a ferry from Victoria and was ultimately caught. He had plans to blow up LAX, Los Angeles airport. He had been living in Canada. Subsequently an associate revealed that there were plans to set off a bomb in Montreal in a section where a lot of Jewish people lived.
That should cause us some concern. I am simply arguing that it is improper, it is not correct to say that we did not have any warning signs before September 11 that this is a dangerous world. We had lots of warning signs.
I point to the fact that I and many others raised concerns in the House about government ministers attending fundraising dinners sponsored by a group that CSIS and the Canadian high commissioner in Sri Lanka said was a fundraising group for the Tamil Tigers terrorist organization. We raised it in the House. How did the government respond? It accused us first of all of being racist because of course that is the catch all now. If the government wants to dodge or cut off debate about serious issues, it just hurls out that racist accusation and hopes that everybody runs for cover instead of taking it seriously as it should because it is a serious issue.
CSIS warned the government over and over again well before September 11 that Canada was a home to a number of terrorist organizations. The former chief strategist for CSIS commented before a Senate committee saying that there were 50 terrorist organizations operating in Canada well before September 11.
I am afraid it simply does not wash to say that there were no indications before September 11 that this was a serious problem.
I have laid out some of the warning signs. I will argue that the government has still not done enough. I hope other members will flesh that out. I want to talk about where we go in the future.
This motion condemns the government for its failure to present a national security policy. It is absolutely true that the government has failed to do that. How do we protect our country properly in the future? I will answer that question in part by telling the House about my recent journey to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado which is where we, along with the United States, run Norad, the North American aerospace defence command.
Since 1958 Canadians and Americans have worked together at Norad to jointly provide a defence of North American airspace. Believe it or not, on September 11 it was two Canadians who were in charge at Norad. One of them was Captain Mike Jellinek who was at the helm of the command centre when the first of those planes went into the World Trade Center. It was Captain Jellinek along with Major General Eric Findley who were in charge at Cheyenne Mountain on September 11 making the calls along with the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States to get planes and commercial jetliners out of the air to ensure that no more of them would fly into buildings. Those two Canadians were involved in helping scramble jets to make sure there were no more problems with more aircraft.
It is a wonderful model of how Canada and the United States can work together on so many other issues. Those issues range from security sharing right through to things like a joint integrated northern command to protect the entire North American continent not only from attack by air but from attack by sea and land as well. It is a fantastic model which is now 43 years old. There is no question that it works. We saw it when we were there. Every member who joined us, Liberal and NDP as well as a Conservative senator, agreed that it worked extraordinarily well. It should be a model for the future.
My former leader, Preston Manning, on his last day here, spoke about the fact that in the future we will need to think about forming strategic alliances in a lot of ways in order to solve the problems that we face. He is absolutely correct. It makes so much sense to work with our closest ally, our largest trading partner, the United States, to protect the North American continent.
I was happy to hear the Deputy Prime Minister suggest that harmonization of some laws was needed as well as some agreements on information sharing and that kind of thing. I fear that the government will not go far enough in ensuring that happens.
I need to remind members across the way who are concerned about sovereignty that the greatest threat to our sovereignty occurs when terrorists and dangerous criminals come into our country and threaten the lives of our citizens. That is the greatest threat to our sovereignty; it is not being overtaken by Americans. We already know we can work very well with the Americans through Norad and a dozen other security agreements which are already in place. We should be expanding it so we can take advantage of the vast resources the U.S. has to offer to protect our country. I will make one final point with respect to that.
In the very near future we will be discussing in Canada not only the idea of an integrated northern command to protect the North American continent, but we will also be talking about ballistic missile defence. When we were at Norad we saw the fantastic facilities it has to detect ballistic missile launches anywhere in the world. It tracks a couple of hundred a year. Canadians are very involved in this. As I pointed out, the fellow in charge of the command centre is a Canadian, a navy captain, Mike Jellinek.
If we agree to move forward with ballistic missile defence then Canada will undoubtedly sit at the table when decisions are being made about protecting the North American continent through the new ballistic missile defence shield. It is important to keep that in mind when we are discussing this issue. Canada will have a major say in how ballistic missile defence works and in how it will protect the North American continent if we say yes to BMD when the Americans ask us for co-operation.
I will close by simply urging Liberal colleagues across the way to remember that the first priority of any government is to protect its citizens and their property. I would argue the government has failed completely to do that in the past. Since September 11 it has awoken to the necessity to start doing that, but we urge it not to fall asleep again as time passes by.