Mr. Speaker, let me answer that last question first. It is well known, certainly I think in most defence circles, why the United Kingdom did not decide to maintain these subs as operational components of the U.K. navy. These subs were designed and built in the 1980s and intended to cover what is known as the GIUK gap, the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap. They were to be placed out in the North Atlantic as listening posts, essentially, for the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom went through a period in the early 1990s when it was cutting back on its military just as we were doing here in Canada. As a matter of fact, the earliest cuts to the military in the 1990s did not come from this government. They came from the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.
These subs were extremely capable platforms and we acquired them for $750 million. To give hon. members an example of the cost of building these subs ourselves, the Australians built the Collins class submarines at approximately $750 million per copy. We got four for $750 million. I think it is a good deal by any stretch of the imagination, not the least of which is also the fact that from the standpoint of bringing these subs up to operational standards the British are going to be paying for that as well.