Mr. Speaker, the part of this equation that the Canadian public does not understand is the $497 million it cost the taxpayer to buy out the lawsuit. When the present government cancelled the original helicopter deal after the 1993 election, it did so at a huge cost to the taxpayers. It cost taxpayers a half a billion dollars to cancel a deal which the Liberals raged against in the election, for no other reason than pure politics.
I want to ask the member for Saint John for her impression of whether or not that is the number, and how many lives the cancellation of this deal has cost? When can we expect helicopters, given the present set of circumstances under which we are operating and given the government's position?