Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My colleague in her previous round of questioning talked about an issue that I think is worth delving into a little bit deeper. Mr. Coderre has repeatedly argued before this committee and in public that it would be far better for the military to lease or rent strategic airlift from our allies than purchase it. Now, apart from the fact that every military witness who has been before this committee has testified that purchasing these aircraft was the best option, I want to talk about the possibility that--heaven forbid--if the Liberals were to return to power, they would cancel the contract.
This certainly wouldn't be a first time, as you probably know. As you may recall, the Liberal government, as one of its first acts of power in 1993, cancelled the EH-101 contract that had been negotiated by the previous Conservative government to replace the aging Sea Kings. At the time the Prime Minister called these helicopters just too expensive. He dismissed them as Cadillacs, as being too good for the military, and the previous Liberal government paid a $470 million penalty to cancel the contract. They then took 11 years to identify a suitable replacement, which is the H-92 Superhawk, at a cost of $5 billion. This was a billion dollars more than the EH-101 contract, and now we're expecting delivery in 2009, when we would have had the previous helicopters for several years now.
So my question to the minister is this. What would be the consequences if the Liberals were to return to government and cancel yet another contract for much-needed equipment for our military?