Madam Chair, we are committed to having an open, fair and transparent competition. I am glad the Leader of the Opposition agrees with this. He said so in his speech last week.
We conducted a thorough analysis, talking to our allies, in defence of North America. When we looked at the number 65 that the previous government selected, we realized it was too low. It did not actually meet our requirements. This is one of the reasons why we increased the future fighters to 88.
The other thing is that even with the 65 number, the Conservatives did not even leave enough money for them.