Mr. Chair, I was somewhat concerned when my hon. friend started out by saying he was in agreement with what I said, but he quickly allayed my concerns by moving to the attack so I feel more comfortable now.
I want to share with the hon. member and with other members of the House the fact that I do not believe we have been dragging our feet on this at all. This is a matter which we have been considering carefully. This is a matter which, as the hon. member knows, is technologically a long way from being demonstrated yet as to whether it would be accurate. There have been serious considerations about whether or not this matter would go ahead.
We looked at it wisely and said we will consider it when it is appropriate. The time has come now that it is appropriate. As I said in my remarks, we believe very strongly that this, if housed in NORAD, will have the way in which it can protect Canadians best. It will continue to preserve NORAD, which we believe is an extremely important institution for the defence of North America.
We believe there are very concrete potential benefits to our participating in negotiations at this time, which did not exist earlier. Those potential benefits are there and we need to explore them, but we need to have our reserves about weaponization of space and we need to make sure that this is not taking us in directions we do not want to go.
We will approach it from that point of view. I think that is the way that Canadians want us to approach this: in an honest interest, to have a good agreement with the United States, but at the same time recognize that Canada has its priorities in defence and we want to respect those as well.