Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight with regard to the issue of Afghanistan and a question I had posed in the House earlier this session which had to do with the issue of rotation.
The House adopted a motion which said that our combat role in Kandahar, Afghanistan would end in February 2009.
Clearly, the government has failed to notify our NATO partners about rotation. In 2003-04 we had a force in Afghanistan. We notified NATO and the Turks came in and replaced us. The government seems not to be willing to do just that. The defence minister is talking about maybe going until 2011. The chief of the defence staff talks about going as far as 2017.
Clearly, this is not a Canadian mission alone. It is a NATO mission. Of the 26 member countries, only six of them have taken an active combat role in Afghanistan.
The Liberal Party has made it very clear that as of February 2009, we believe that the military role should end. That does not preclude that we would not take on another role. Another role could be training of the Afghan national police, which is very much in need. We see issues of corruption, the failure to have security in local villages, et cetera. We can take on other important roles in Afghanistan, but not a combat mission.
By 2009 we will have had the longest combat mission abroad in Canadian history. We do not think it is realistic for us to continue past February 2009.
The essence of the question was to find out what is the position of the government.
Number one, the date that was originally proposed, by the way, was February 2009. Will the government stick to that?
Number two, when will the government inform NATO that our combat role will end in February 2009? The longer it waits, the more difficult it will be to get replacements.
Finally, who really speaks for the government? Is it the Minister of National Defence, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, or indeed, the Prime Minister? Or is it the chief of the defence staff who talks about staying there as far in time as 2017? Canadians need to know. Canadians want to hear the answer. They want to hear a definitive answer.
It is rather ironic that a government that proposed the date of February 2009 is running away from the very commitment which it had put forward in this House, which the majority of members had supported, and is now saying that it really may not be February 2009, that it may be 2011 or beyond. That is what is important. We need to know what are the realistic options.
This party is prepared to work with others on creative proposals for after February 2009. I do not want to hear from the government about cutting and running and all that nonsense. We are prepared to be in Afghanistan, but in a different role and certainly not in a combat role. We have made that very clear.
The government continues to come back. It does not want to tell us the facts about what happens to Taliban forces who are kidnapped. We have signed international protocols dealing with that issue. If we are to be there to talk about the rule of law, about human rights, et cetera, we need to practise that.
Certainly, we do not want anything to happen to our soldiers. We certainly want to convey our condolences, as we did earlier in the House today, to the families and friends of those two brave soldiers who lost their lives on the weekend.
The issue is very clear. We have a deadline of February 2009. The government has to inform NATO of the rotation. It has failed to do so. The question is, when will the government do so, so that this House knows and the public knows?