Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me congratulate my colleague, the member for Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel. He was quite convincing. I would like him to comment further on a topic he did not develop at length and that is the whole issue of democratic deficit in this debate.
The defence minister spent $700,000 or will do so shortly, so that we can take part in this project. He goes everywhere saying that we agree with the whole thing. He wrote a letter to his American counterpart which was perfectly clear . He even wants to change Norad's terms of reference. He says we want to take part in the project. Even his general in charge at Norad, the Canadian general, said, and I quote:
I would not say that the whole thing is a done deal, but it seems that Canada essentially agrees with the project and wants to be part of it.
The problem is that a handful of civil servants and military people are establishing the national defence policy and the foreign affairs policy. This is quite a break from before when we could affirm our credibility with the peacekeeping missions the member referred to earlier.
The Bloc Quebecois had to bring the issue to the House. Does my colleague not agree that there must be a serious democratic deficit when the Bloc Quebecois has to do the work, has to show us that what is happening here is that they are modifying the defence policy and the foreign affairs policy?