Mr. Speaker, this issue of arms control was first brought up by the member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie in a motion at the foreign affairs committee, not at the time to create a separate standing committee but rather to create a subcommittee of foreign affairs to study the issue. We in the Conservative Party supported studying it in the context of foreign affairs, but that did not happen because the Liberals voted against it.
We do not support the idea of creating a separate standing committee of the House, in part because this is a job for the foreign affairs committee. However, why did the government not agree with the consensus of opposition parties at the time to have this issue studied in the context of a subcommittee of the foreign affairs committee.