Mr. Speaker, there are always going to be competing accounts of whatever was said or not said at a negotiating table. The fact remains that it is the minister's own recklessness that has in fact put us in this position.
At the time the government apparently made its decision, it is not entirely clear whether the government was aware that in fact it was going to need the base not simply until 2011 but until 2014.
We know that the original estimate of the cost of this disastrous decision by the government was $300 million. Can the government now tell us how much it will cost us in addition to have lost the base in Dubai until 2014?