I'd like to quote a former deputy minister for military procurement, Alan Williams. In his recent commentary, he said the following:
The only way to know for certain which aircraft can best meet Canadian requirements and at what cost, is to put out an open, fair and transparent statement of requirements and request for proposal, and conduct a rigorous evaluation of the bidders' responses. The bid that meets the requirements of the Canadian military with the lowest life-cycle costs would be selected.
I want to ask Minister Ambrose whether or not that procedure was followed in this case. Obviously we haven't seen a statement of requirements other than the words the minister has spoken here today, but has there been such a statement of requirements prepared in the same fashion as we might see, as we have in the report on the operational requirements of fixed-wing aircraft? Has there been such a statement of requirements prepared, and have we in fact gone through that process in determining the life-cycle costs?