Madam Speaker, I am rising in my place as a result of the lack of response from the Government of Canada over whether or not our nation will be participating in the international thermonuclear experimental reactor, ITER, fusion research project. If anything demonstrates the leadership vacuum that exists in Canada, it has to be the indecision around this project.
It is unfortunate that for crass political manipulation, the Liberal cabinet postponed making a decision from the scheduled September 18 cabinet meeting to October 2, the date of the Ontario provincial election. We still have no decision because the cabinet minister who is supposed to be championing this project, the Minister of Natural Resources, is opposed to it. Canadians will be shocked to learn the true nature of the minister's opposition to this research project.
The actual leader of the Liberal Party, the member for LaSalle--Émard, has ordered all cabinet ministers not to approve any spending items until after the current Prime Minister has been officially removed from office if they want to keep their seat at the cabinet table.
Just like no decision on missile defence means the loss of thousands of jobs, thousands of jobs hang in the balance of this project because no leadership exists in Ottawa to make decisions.
The other fear is that any decisions made by the outgoing regime will be overturned like the verdict to expel, then accept, and now expel the member for Québec East from the Liberal caucus.
Negotiations are taking place right now in Vienna. Every day is critical if Canada wants to participate in the ITER project. Canada is not participating in those discussions because we do not have an offer on the table. At the negotiating sessions the other international parties allowed Canada to sit at the table, but have moved forward on the assumption that there is no offer from Canada.
A decision has to be made this month, and Canada is once again an international laughing stock because this country suffers from a lack of leadership. Our negotiators have no mandate to negotiate because the Government of Canada is suffering from a crisis in leadership that has paralyzed all decision-making.
It was the former Ontario provincial government, with the able direction of Jim Flaherty, MPP for Whitby--Ajax, who provided the leadership on this project. It was the Province of Ontario that first showed leadership by committing $300 million to the ITER project.
When it was determined that a greater commitment was required, it was the Conservative Government of Ontario that moved forward with a competitive bid. Ironically, the new Premier of Ontario, who has the same political stripe as Ottawa, has endorsed ITER. This is the first test of whether or not there is to be cooperation between Ottawa and Queen's Park.
The ITER project represents a 30 year investment in research and development of $2.3 billion shared on a fifty-fifty basis between the federal and provincial governments. In the case of the federal government, the ITER project represents a commitment to research and development of less than $40 million per year.
Considering the fact that the federal government has already wasted $1 billion on the hated Liberal gun registry and is planning to pour hundreds of millions of dollars more into the black hole of the gun registry, it is clear that this is not a financial decision, but a policy decision. This is not the first time that political expediency has been substituted for sound policy making.
The people of Renfrew--Nipissing--Pembroke remember, particularly--