Mr. Speaker, it is not true that we are going to give them a blank cheque.
The minister told us that he would inform us of the costs of the mission, and I quote, “when they are fully known”. The problem is that he knows how much the mission is going to cost. The Chief of the Defence Staff, Tom Lawson, says that he has already forwarded a cost assessment to the minister.
The cost of the U.S. mission is $7.5 million a day; for the Australians, it is $500 million a year. Why do we know how much our allies spend, but not how much the mission will cost Canadians?