Mr. Chair, my concern is Canada's role tonight. That is what I think we are discussing here this evening.
I believe that Canada has both the fiscal capacity and the military capacity to participate in this mission. We have seen from the access to information requests that Canada does have, and the minister's own advice was that we do have, the military capacity to send 1,500 troops to a role in Sudan. I believe we must make that commitment very, very clear.
Also, a $13 billion surplus was announced by the government last week, which means that even though we have made a significant financial contribution to the effort in Darfur already, we have the fiscal capacity to do more than that. We know that it is absolutely necessary. We have seen the hardship facing African Union troops in Darfur now. We know that they need our assistance. They have not been paid. That has to affect their ability to do the tough work they are called to do. We hear that they are not getting the food they need. That also directly affects their ability to do that important work.
We need to increase both as Canada's response to this, let alone other countries, but Canada's response. Maybe by making those kinds of commitments we can convince other countries to come along on that important effort and also get behind the African Union and the United Nations on this.