Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member on his position. It is very important. I had the opportunity to serve in the role of parliamentary secretary, and the work parliamentary secretaries do is very important, not only in support of our government but in answering to Canadians, speaking with them and meeting them.
I have no difficulty in supporting this renewal of Norad. I think it is very important. Expanding it to look at maritime threats is quite appropriate in today's world if we consider the ensuing threats that could come to Canada, to the United States, to our continent. I think it is quite reasonable that we work together and see how we can improve our relationship in the future.
Through Norad we have worked together on areas such as drug interdiction, where we have been able to use the resources of both countries, the resources of our allies, to see what is happening in the air space of the Americas and to see what is happening in the waters of the Americas. Modernizing that and looking specifically at our waters and in maritime areas is quite reasonable, I think.
Where Canadians have some concern, and I would ask the member to speak about this, is where we would go beyond that, where there is the potential that we would leave inner space and use tools such as Norad to foster a partnership with our principal ally into outer space. I mean not only in the area of surveillance, because I think in the area of surveillance we quite understand that is where we are now and that is quite necessary, but in the area that would have weapons of interdiction, where we would have what we commonly call weaponization. I would ask the member if he has any comments on that. Does he see this agreement leading us there?
If it is going in that direction and if there are negotiations at that time, would the government commit to coming before Parliament to deal with this, maybe not in this House but in camera at committee? I would be happy to deal with this in camera at committee. If we get to this situation, then I think it should be done in an area that is respectful of the secrecy that sometimes has to happen in discussions among nations. There must be a way of engaging parliamentarians in a responsible fashion so that we are aware of discussions like these or what necessities there are.
Would the government commit to such an enterprise?