Thank you for that reminder, Mr. Speaker.
I want to quote what the member for Etobicoke--Lakeshore said some time ago because it gets to the core of the issue here. A lot of members have talked about the need for increased development assistance to Afghanistan or other nations, but the reality is there cannot be that sort of development without a secure environment. It simply does not exist. People of good faith and people of goodwill will not enter into that environment without knowing that their lives are not at risk.
I quote from Hansard of April 10, 2006, not that long ago. The member for Etobicoke--Lakeshore said:
What I learned there is that we cannot do development in Afghanistan unless we control the security situation. The schools and clinics we build by day are burned down by night unless we have the troops to secure the development gains we have made.
That is exactly what we are talking about here. We are making tremendous gains in Afghanistan and we want to continue to do so. We can only do so if our men and women in uniform are there playing a key role.