Mr. Speaker, during the member's speech he referred to the crux of the matter.
He described it as basically being that the procurement of the maritime helicopters was split into two; one a request for proposals on a frame and the other for a mission system. The member made the allegation that by splitting the contract for helicopters into two parts it somehow discriminated or provided a barrier against a particular company. In fact, he named E.H. Industries Ltd.
E.H. Industries Ltd. actually made an appeal to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal. I would like to inform the member that the CITT rejected the complaint by E.H. Industries Ltd. I am not sure if the member knows more about this than CITT. If he does maybe he should explain to the House why he is more of an expert than the CITT.
Second, I would like to point out that E.H. Industries Ltd. won the competition in a fair, open and competitive process for the search and rescue helicopters. That very clearly shows that there is no bias against any particular company. In a fair, open and transparent process, it is obvious that the government has no position on any potential bidder. The reason why we put out a procurement strategy, which included a letter of interest, was so we could have a dialogue with the industry, advise what the specs were and do pre-qualification to make sure that we could get the best helicopters to meet the specifications of DND at the best possible price on behalf of all Canadians.
The member suggested that having a procurement strategy which goes for the frame first and then puts out bids for the mission system was a barrier. Could he explain to the House why a comprehensive pre-consultation and pre-qualification somehow provides a barrier to anybody?