Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, who also sits on the defence committee. I know that all of the opposition members on the defence committee share a real frustration that we do not have a defence capabilities plan. It has been talked about by the defence minister and others who speak for the government, but it just has not come forward. We cannot figure out what the delay is and why it is not coming forward. There must be something going on within cabinet where there is a competition around what eventually will be in that document.
One of my biggest concerns, which I have mentioned at defence committee, is the whole issue of the national security exemption being invoked on this contract, because it then leaves open the opportunity for, if not the reality of politics entering into the equation of how the contracts are awarded, certainly the appearance that it could be possible. We have in Canada an agreement on internal trade that was developed after a past fiasco when Canadians, or certainly western Canadians, became outraged when the CF-18 contract was not awarded to Winnipeg, which put in the lowest bid.
I share the member's concerns around that. I cannot speak specifically to what happened on the committee before I was a member. I do not have access to the memory that the member has, who has served on the committee much longer than I have.
I certainly hope that when we finish our study on procurement we will come to an agreement in committee, with some very hard and clear recommendations to government on defence procurement.