Madam Chair, since my name was raised in the context of the debate, I feel compelled to respond. It is not uncommon for the NDP to use all sorts of figures in terms of this debate. The $1 trillion figure is one that it uses with abandon, in terms of how often it is used and how little credibility that particular number has. We know that.
From that standpoint, the NDP members are always throwing out different figures and if I have not heard them, chances are most Canadians have not either because they pick them out of their back pocket and just throw them out in terms of trying to scare people about the sort of system we are contemplating and are about to engage in discussions with the Americans.
That is obviously a concern, but the other issue that the hon. member raised was the issue of the $700,000 contract of the Department of National Defence. For the third time tonight I will try to explain this to the hon. member.
This involves high frequency surface wave radar. From our perspective, it is based on the capability of the radar to look over the horizon. It would be particularly well suited for cruise missile defence. We have not made a decision within the Department of National Defence as to whether or not we will go ahead with these missile detection trials.
However, to go back to the figures that the hon. member talked about, we have to concentrate on what the Americans have spent. They have spent $14 million in the last year on space based research out of a budget of $9 billion. That $14 million is the equivalent of about four armoured personnel carriers. It is not enough to get us to space, it is not even close.
The position of the government has been made clear by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The position has been made clear by many speakers in the House as one of opposition to the weaponization of space. The NDP should know that. It refuses to believe it for some reason. The same applies to the Bloc. I would urge the NDP to be honest with Canadians. All of this talk of star wars is not true. Canadians by now should know that it is not true. Why is the NDP scaring people with this talk of star wars? It is not a fact.
The Americans talked about a star wars system in the 1980s. I mentioned this in my speech. It did not go forward because it was extremely expensive. It was technologically impossible and it became strategically unnecessary. It is my personal view that this is likely going to happen with the space based research that is going on right now. It will probably be proven to be technologically impossible, financially very crippling for the United States, and strategically unnecessary.
What we are contemplating is a land and sea based missile system to protect Canadians and North Americans. Why is that so controversial? I do not understand. Why is it so difficult for the NDP to understand that we are trying to protect Canadians and North Americans, and that we are not doing this alone if the discussions with the Americans are successful. The Japanese and the Australians are involved, the South Koreans are involved, and so are the British. These are not war happy people that we are talking about. These are our allies and our friends.
If the NDP would at least be honest with Canadians, we could raise the level of this debate. We would end up with a much more satisfactory result in terms of the understanding that Canadians would have as to what this system is all about.