Mr. Speaker, we are saying that the procurement policies of governments in the past were not adequate. They were not fair to Canadian taxpayers. They were not fair to the people who pay the bills.
Under the old system, it could be 15 or 16 years from the time a decision was made to purchase a piece of equipment until it is actually delivered. The frigate program is a good example of that.
I was in the navy in 1973. It was about 1975 that the planners of the frigate program started to come around to the ships to talk to the sailors and to the people in the military about the purchase of new frigates. As members know, we have just recently taken delivery of the very frigates that were in the planning stages in the mid-1970s.
Our procurement process over the years has not been a good one. It has not been value added for the Canadian taxpayer. It has left the military personnel who are challenged with these very heavy commitments that the government places on them with aging equipment, as we see with the Labrador and Sea King helicopters. They are literally falling out of the sky while we wait for an announcement on helicopters.
The helicopters were a big campaign promise. Many would argue that the cancellation of the EH-101 helicopter was probably what won the Liberal government victory in the last election campaign.
What is happening now? The Canadian taxpayers are paying the cost for cancelling the EH-101. I am not overwhelmingly endorsing the EH-101 project but I am not going to say that we should have ruled it out and used it as a political football, which is what the Liberal Party did during the election campaign.
It did not come down to whether the specifications were right. We did not talk about that in the election campaign. We did not talk about whether it was value for the Canadian taxpayers. The Liberals did not talk about that. They just said that they were going to cancel it regardless of the requirement for it, the specifications for it, the terrain that we have to live with in Canada, one of the largest countries in the world. It has excessive weather.
They did not talk about that. They made it a campaign promise to cancel the contract. The figures run about $600 million right now for the cancellation of the EH-101 helicopters. Now the taxpayers know that those figures could reach $1 billion.
The member shakes his head and says no, it will not reach $1 billion. Why, since I have had access to information on this very subject since the summer, has this government that claims to be open, responsive and interested in letting Canadians know all the
information not been forthright about the actual costs of cancellation? It has not done that.
These members have not been forthright. If I can use the members own words, the government is being opaque on this issue, very much so.
This issue with the helicopters is so much like this Liberal government. After spending $600 million in cancellation fees so far, after the minister announces that the government is going to spend $600 million on a new search and rescue helicopter with a decreased capability of 15 per cent, we still do not have helicopters today. That is $1.2 billion right there. The costs are not in yet and Canadians do not have one helicopter to show for it.
This is hypocrisy. The government is going to have to get down to real terms. It is going to have to go to the Canadian people and tell them exactly what the requirements are for the search and rescue helicopter. You cannot even get that information from the minister and the department.
The government is supposed to be open, consulting with the people. Why does it keep secret the information on this procurement? It is not right. I will do everything in my power to fight this and make sure that the government is held to the fire on this one until a purchase is made.