Mr. Chairman, we received some help during the ice storm and during natural disasters here. The hon. member may not remember Hurricane Andrew in the United States. We helped the United States at that time. That is part of what we do. We help and assist each other. We do have a number of capabilities that can be quite helpful to our friends when they need that kind of assistance.
After I told the House about all the lifting we had done for the Americans in the theatre of operation, the hon. member is missing the point. He also misses the point when he forgets that there are only two countries that have this kind of strategic lift in the NATO family and that is the U.K., which only recently acquired it I might add, and the United States.
How did all the other countries like Germany, France and Italy get into Afghanistan and the other places where they had operations? They were renting this and that and getting the job done. I would not place too much emphasis on the fact that we did not have it in this case. We recognize that it is an important function to look at for future needs. We have a project office that is looking at various options.