Mr. Chair, I think that would be the first time people have said that UN peacekeeping missions are not challenging. I think they have their own challenges that are quite difficult.
In my previous round of questions, I asked about the Excalibur. The minister said that the Canadian Forces have none, but I have here a document that was tabled in the House. I have given it to the minister. It indicates that the Government of Canada spent $5.5 million on these munitions.
Perhaps I could explain to the minister why I am being so persistent on this point. As I said earlier, I have had questions on the order paper. I have questioned the minister in committee. He indicated to me that he would give me the figures.
As the Chief of Defence Staff indicated at a defence committee meeting recently, the Excalibur is a very expensive round. I had assumed that when we bought these rounds, we would have bought the first run, the experimental run of the shells. Back when the first line was proposed in 2002, two Democrats on the U.S. house appropriations committee estimated that it would cost about $222,000 per round. That is a quarter of a million Canadian dollars, so the minister can see why I am being persistent on this point. The rounds could cost less, but the information has not been forthcoming from the minister.
When the Senlis Council came to Ottawa and appeared at our defence committee, its members showed us slides of children living in Kandahar city who were starving and of whole families without food, so now I am asking the minister, is he saying that we do not have these shells, or is he not about to reveal the cost of the shells? Did the government table this information in the House of Commons in error? Is the minister not informed by his own department? What is the cost of each of these shells, please?