Mr. Speaker, I am sharing my time with the hon. member for Prince Edward—Hastings.
It is an honour for me to speak today in favour of this motion dealing with the future of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan. Allow me to repeat that. We are dealing today with a Canadian mission in Afghanistan.
As the Prime Minister said in a recent speech, the motion represents a clear and principled position on the future of the mission. It is neither a Conservative position nor a Liberal position; it is a Canadian position. I think it is exemplified by the comments that the member for York South—Weston made, that this is bipartisan; this is not simply a partisan position. It is a position that I am very proud to support.
Some say that the question of our involvement in Afghanistan is a difficult issue. I say that while the work is difficult, the decision whether we should be so involved is not a difficult one because it is clearly the right thing to do. It is a mission that displays to the world the best of what it is to be Canadian. Our men and women in uniform, our diplomats and our aid workers are making the kind of contribution in Afghanistan that only Canadians can make, contributions that reflect Canadian's shared history and values.
It is true, as the Prime Minister said in his speech that unveiled the motion we are debating today, that Canada has a long, honourable and distinguished military history. With the work that we are doing today in Afghanistan, our men and women in uniform are adding to that legacy, but it is equally important that Canadians understand the nature of our military engagement, in particular as it relates to the essential development work that is going on in Afghanistan.
To put it in its simplest terms, without security, there can be no development in Afghanistan. It requires a military presence to protect reconstruction projects, to shield the development workers and non-governmental organizations from extremist attacks, to insulate the people of Afghanistan who only want peace and prosperity from those who only want conflict and strife.
The development work that is going on is not what makes the evening news, but it is at the root of the progress that is being made in Afghanistan. Work like this deserves our support, and the best way to support the work is to provide the secure environment necessary for it to continue. What does that work look like? I would like to go through some of the statistics. I know that some of my hon. colleagues have mentioned those statistics, but they are worth repeating. The numbers are simply staggering.
More than six million children, one-third of them girls, are enrolled in school in 2007-08. In 2001, there were only 700,000 children, all of them boys.
I often wonder how the Taliban ever expect women to receive medical care because they prohibit male doctors from taking care of women, even in childbirth, and yet they refuse to educate women. What we would be doing by allowing that kind of regime to stay in place, or to return, would be to condemn women to substandard medical care and all the dangers associated with childbirth. Many women here in Canada now are assured through our medical system and through their care that they can have their children in safety.
Canada directly supports the establishment of 4,000 community based schools and the training of 9,000 teachers. Again, 4,000 of these teachers are women.
Our government is providing microfinance support, as one of the members mentioned earlier, to Afghan families who are starting businesses, to support their own families. More than two-thirds of those accessing this support are women.
When I was in Afghanistan, I saw the impact of this microfinancing and the women who are directly benefiting from these opportunities. Eighty-three per cent of Afghanis now have access to basic medical care. In 2004, that number was 9%. Even that should make a New Democrat sit back and think.
What we are doing is trying to provide universal medical access for the people of Afghanistan. A New Democrat might think that medicare should be a basic right for Canadians. The right to basic health care should extend further than Canada. It should extend to the people of Afghanistan, and I am very proud to see that it is happening.
The infant mortality rate is down 22% from 2001. Forty thousand more babies survive every year in Afghanistan. The list goes on.
As I have said, I have been to Afghanistan and I have seen with my own eyes what Canadians are doing. The progress is not always fast and it is not even necessarily noticeable, but it is happening and it is happening because Canadian men and women are providing the security for progress to take place.
When I was in Afghanistan, the non-governmental organizations that do this work, the Canadian NGOs who deliver the aid, do basic reconstruction and provide medical care and the microfinancing, told me that security was absolutely essential for them to carry out the work they are doing. I asked individuals and organizations if they thought our Canadian troops should leave and if they thought that they could do their work without a military presence providing some level of security. Not a single Canadian NGO in Afghanistan told me that we should leave.
On the contrary, they told me that the presence of military personnel allowed them to do their jobs. They said that otherwise it would be them on the next plane home and, when the Taliban came back, it would be the doctors, the nurses, the teachers and the free thinkers in Afghanistan who would be executed. Even the female legislators from Afghanistan who came to Canada asking for our help, asking for this government and Parliament to continue our support, their very lives would be in jeopardy.
The work is still going on and we have a responsibility to complete that work. Finding a way to finish it, a way forward, was the aim of the independent panel on Canada's future role in Afghanistan created by the Prime Minister last fall. It was given a mandate to advise Canadians and parliamentarians on options for the mission after the current mandate ends in February 2009.
The panel included eminent Canadians from across the political spectrum: former Liberal cabinet minister, the hon. John Manley; the widely respected, former public servant and diplomat, Derek Burney; a businessman and former clerk of the Privy Council, Paul Tellier; former journalist and diplomat, Pamela Wallin; and former Conservative MP for Provencher and cabinet minister, the hon. Jake Epp. I am particular proud of my predecessor as MP for my riding.
Mr. Epp played a prominent role in crafting the substantive and thoughtful report. The best way for Canadians to continue helping the people of Afghanistan is a difficult thing to determine, too often coloured by partisanship and a lack of understanding. Knowing Mr. Epp, I am confident that his even-handed and responsible approach was beneficial to the process.
I wanted to speak a bit about the military personnel in CFB Shilo, where a large number of military personnel would be rotating into Afghanistan. I was privileged to address them and their families. I told them that I had never served in the military, that I had not experienced the years of training that they have, that I had never worn the uniform or stepped into the theatre and that I had never put my life on the line to protect others and defend our values. The truth is that few Canadians have but these men and women are prepared to do that and we should give them the support in order to develop the country of Afghanistan.
