Mr. Speaker, when the federal government awarded the largest shipbuilding contract in its history and abandoned the Davie shipyard in Quebec, it boasted about how rigorous the process was. It was heralded by the NDP as a big day for Canada.
Now we see the results: the Vancouver shipyard cannot do the work, while the icebreaker promised will cost $1.3 billion—two times higher than projected—and will be eight years late. There is an alternative: the Davie shipyard sent a proposal to the federal government to build an icebreaker at the agreed-upon price and deadline.
Why did the government reject the Davie shipyard's proposal?