Mr. Speaker, it is certainly a pleasure to follow my distinguished colleague from Kings—Hants, who is very knowledgeable on this question. I also want to acknowledge the hon. member for Saint John, who has brought the issue forward and has been consistent in her concern about the helicopter issue and about all other military issues.
This debate is of interest to me because I was a member from 1988 to 1993 and I was part of the government that approved the purchase of the EH-101 helicopters, which would have been in service now for some time, at least some of them. We would have replaced some of the Sea King helicopters which continue to literally fall out of the sky and present a hazard to our military people.
However, as we know, the Liberal government cancelled the contract that was given by the Canadian government in a way that caused them a ton of grief and cost the taxpayers of Canada a lot of money, with upward of $1 billion in costs for cancellation fees, legal fees, settlements and work in the departments. That is a thousand million dollars that went for absolutely nothing. It was a fee to cancel the contract: a thousand million dollars.
I think of the effort we go through in Nova Scotia to try to raise money for hospitals, social services, highways and roads and all the things we need money for that the government will no longer do. The government says it will no longer have highway improvement agreements and it will cut back on transfers to health care. I think of the thousand million dollars that was just thrown away for nothing to prove a political point. It is very sad that the money was totally wasted and that we have continued to debate the helicopter issue for so long.
As a result of that thousand million dollar mistake, the government has had to distort the tendering process and the calls for proposals on helicopters in order to exclude the helicopter the Conservative government ordered in the early nineties, which the Liberals cancelled. In order to save face, the government cannot possibly allow the same helicopter to be reordered after the Liberals cost taxpayers a thousand million dollars in cancellation fees.
The whole issue goes back to 1978, when the Liberals themselves identified the need for new helicopters. That is 23 years ago. They did nothing about it at that time. In 1992 when the Conservatives came in, they did approve the replacement of the helicopters with one type of helicopter, an EH-101, for all the necessary purposes. The Labrador search and rescue and the Sea King maritime helicopter fleets were to be replaced with the EH-101. That would have given us efficiencies in replacement parts, training knowledge, training of pilots and mechanics, parts inventory and everything else.
Since the government cancelled that contract, it has been divided into two contracts. The government has divided the last batch of contracts into airframe and mission packages. Having been in the car business for some time, I just know what is going to happen when something fails with the helicopter in the future. The provider of the mission package is going to say that the problem is not with the electronic equipment but the airframe and how it has been constructed and how it interrelates to the mission package. If something happens with the helicopter, the helicopter providers are going to blame it on the mission package supplier. In other words, it is going to cost the government a lot more money.
In a parallel issue, I recently heard on the news a good example of what the private sector is doing. Ford Motor Company builds cars for police services. There is inconsistency in the application of sirens and telecommunications and communications equipment in the police cars now. They are so high tech, with so many electronic features and all the bells and whistles police cars have, that they have not interrelated well. There are a lot of difficulties. Warranty on issues has had to be refused because the car company says the difficulties were due to the supplier of the equipment and the equipment company says the problem was due to the supplier of the vehicle. The company has established a new policy. It wants to supply one unit. The police car will already be equipped so that the electronics are integrated and work in sync with the automobile's electronics, the engine, the transmission and all the other features. It has had so much trouble that it is again passing the buck. It is the supplier of the mission package or the supplier of the police car. That is exactly what will happen with the new helicopters. The supplier of the mission package will say that it is not its problem, that it is someone else's problem and the supplier of the helicopter will say that it is a mission package problem.
I know this will fail. I have seen it myself with my own two eyes. The private sector has acknowledged that the system does not work and here we are going into this process. We will have two different parties supplying these things and the people of Canada will end up paying for it. They paid the price for the cancellation of the last deal and they will pay the price for this poor policy of supply and procurement for these helicopters.
The EH-101 is and always has been the military's first choice. It is the helicopter that it prefers and it has identified it as the best suited for its purposes. However the politicians have interceded and said that it cannot be done and that it is not politically acceptable. They said that we have to have a different helicopter so they changed the rules in order to prevent the EH-101 from being the successful candidate. Who pays? The taxpayers will pay once again.
A mistake was made in the first place when the Liberals promised to get rid of the EH-101. They should just accept that they made a mistake and accept the responsibility for the billion dollars of grief that they have piled on top of Canadian taxpayers. The military should be allowed to buy the right helicopter at the best price to do the job.
We are talking about life and death situations. We are not talking about trivial matters. The Liberals should acknowledge that it is their mistake and not put it on the backs of our military and search and rescue people just because of this decision.
The guidelines for the competition have excluded the EH-101 for all intents and purposes. It will force the military to take a helicopter it does not want. It is well known in circles that some of these helicopters are not even close to the criteria that the military really need. Instead of having helicopters that are appropriate for its use, it will end up with helicopters that it does not want. This is entirely for political purposes.
There are all kinds of rumours around. The illustrious member from Damascus raised issues in the House when he sat with us on this side about innuendo, suspicion of under the table deals, promises between the governments of Canada and France, promises between cities and all kinds of other political deals made surrounding this whole helicopter issue. It has been surrounded by rumours and innuendo, but now that the member is sitting on the Liberal side all those rumours and innuendo seem to have disappeared.
As part of the government that was involved with the original decision to buy the EH-101 helicopters, it is a shame to see that decision reversed. It is a shame to see the taxpayers saddled with a $1 billion tax burden, which was the price to get out of the contract, and now having to pay more for helicopters that are not suitable. Those helicopters will be serviced in an improper, non-functional way contrary to what the private sector is doing with new technology, and again the taxpayer will pay.
I would like to see the government just reverse its decision and accept the best helicopter as has been recommended by the very distinguished member for Saint John.