Madam Chairman, one reason the public seemingly lost confidence, and it goes along with a statement that the minister made earlier to my colleague from Battlefords--Lloydminster, was that the management style of public works was clearly inadequate prior to the year 2000.
Many would say that there have been seriously inadequate management and ethical challenges in several key areas since the year 2000, at a time when the government clearly was been bogged down for 27 years procuring a replacement for the Sea Kings. Yes, 27 years ago the Liberal government started replacement proceedings for the then 12 year old Sea Kings. That was in 1975. A political procurement nightmare still continues and it is still at the bottom of the action list of things to do today.
In response to the member for Saint John, the minister said that he had not been briefed on the maritime helicopter project yet. Nine days is not a very long time but I would think, for a project that is the largest single government procurement in history, that the minister would find the time to be briefed on the file in his first nine days.
My question for the minister is this. When will he be briefed on this file? When will he crack the file on this major procurement project?