No, Mr. Speaker, it is not a parking lot.
Members need to understand what is being proposed. This $200 million is not just for the raw land, which is the impression the Conservatives try to give people. It includes the infrastructure, building a launch pad that is going to elevate Canada's status so that other countries in the world will look to Canada as a way to get their satellites into orbit. It is about sovereignty.
Do members support Canadian sovereignty? Do members believe that Elon Musk should have the priority to say, “No, I have other things that I have to launch that are more important than what Canada wants to launch, so I am going to stick with those?” Are the Conservatives prepared to surrender our sovereignty on space and satellites to Elon Musk? That is what it sounds like, because what is their answer? They are not talking about an alternative or giving criticism in terms of why it is that Canada should not have a space launch pad.
I like the idea. Come to Winnipeg and take the tour of Magellan Aerospace. There are first-class, hard workers of all different ethnic groups who are, in fact, working there every day of the week, and they are building Manitoba's aerospace industry. There is a very strong space component to it. Members can see that in the city of Winnipeg, we are manufacturing satellites. We have satellites that were manufactured in Winnipeg that are circling in orbit today. They are there. It is real. It means jobs.
I can tell members that every member of the national Liberal caucus understands the value of having a launch pad in Nova Scotia. I say shame on my colleagues across the way who do not support the initiative of having it in Nova Scotia.