Madam Speaker, so says the critic and an older parliamentary secretary to the minister of national defence. I accept his comments.
I did not speak to Bill C-31. As the member pointed out, it was an omnibus bill. I did not speak to it in the House. He was very upset that it was an omnibus bill and that the committee was not going to get to see it. Not talking about Bill C-31 or Bill C-40, the bill before us is a bill going through on its own. The member will have ample time to hopefully support it where he thinks he can and criticize it where he thinks he must. That will quell some of his concerns.
With regard to the Crown corporation, it is very important for the current government or any future government to have control over military spending. We would have a Crown corporation to reap the benefits of the upside, to act as a more commercial entity to capitalize on procurement, production and investment, while still having it tied back to the Government of Canada. Clause 9 lays out how that would be the case. If we had not put clause 9 in, the member would be talking and arguing about this from the opposite side of just allocating all this to a Crown corporation and not being involved.
I hear those comments. I hope the member supports the bill. He will get ample opportunity to criticize it or support it as we move forward. I will probably see him in committee, and I look forward to that.