Mr. Speaker, I believe that the government made it perfectly clear, when it announced the cancellation of the helicopter contract, that there would be no compensation for the companies involved, except for contracts between the government and those companies.
It was quite clear and the Leader of the Opposition should try to understand there was no offer of compensation outside the contracts. The contracts are being settled by the process of negotiation and perhaps legal proceedings.
On the broader issue of defence conversion, we have discussed that in this House many times. There are many elements to a defence conversion policy.
The government has a program which is intended to aid companies in converting from defence to civilian or dual use purposes. The program is known as DIPP.
Since November, when this government came into office, we have agreed to 41 proposals under DIPP, 39 of which came from companies converting to civilian production or dual use purposes.