Mr. Speaker, in last year's budget there was a promise of $300 million to purchase new search and rescue aircraft within 12 to 18 months. It did not happen. Now we know the project is stalled because of an overly complicated and convoluted procurement process.
In the meantime our search and rescue planes are only available about half of the time. Like the Sea Kings, the Buffalo and the Hercules are over 40 years old. It took 12 years of dithering by the government to finally make a decision to replace the Sea Kings. Too many lives depend on these aircraft.
How much more dithering can we expect from the government before we actually get new search and rescue helicopters?