Mr. Speaker, while this country might spend $250 million U.S. annually in public sector space activities, the United States spends more than $28 billion U.S. annually. The most significant aspects of the Canadian space program have been jeopardized by the current government's policy of criticizing our American allies on the one hand, while freeloading on the American capabilities on the other.
The United States space command, also known as Spacecom, was merged with strategic command, Stratcom. Previously the combat commander of Spacecom was also the combat commander of Norad. Linking the two commands made sense to the Americans. Canada's decision not to participate in the severing of SpaceCom from Norad has short and long term repercussions to the Canadian space program.
For Canada the SpaceCom-StratCom unification could spell the end of joint Canada-U.S. outerspace development. When SpaceCom was at Norad, Canada enjoyed special access to American space technology and initiatives. Years of chronic underfunding of our national defence budget means that we no longer have the finances to fund any type of space capability.