Mr. Speaker, my colleague is quite right.
Mr. Lajeunesse goes on to say in the same article, and he is quite direct, that:
The IRB policy—the traditional approach to procurement policy when buying military equipment off-the-shelf—would result in guaranteed offset investments equivalent to the cost of the aircraft evaluated at about $4.8 Billion (USD) [call it $5 billion], not $9 Billion as suggested by some. Cancellation and delay of this purchase will not only mean lost jobs and investment related to the 65 planes, but also billions of dollars and thousands of Canadian jobs lost relating to thousands of planes to be built as part of the broader program.
The opposition and people like Mr. Williams, who have not advanced or evolved along with the process, do not get how business is done now in large memorandum of understanding partnerships, like we are in, in that we have access to much beyond the old IRB process.
Yes, we have to compete. Canadian companies have competed extremely well, have been very successful and will continue to be.
We are not just talking about 65 airplanes; we are talking about a global supply chain of 3,000 to 5,000 airplanes. I think anybody can see the economies of scale between 3,000 to 5,000 and 65.