Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are in such a hurry to buy fighter jets that they only did half the calculations to determine the cost.

I would love to see them show as much urgency when it comes to helping our veterans who, because of their participation in the Afghan mission, will forever be scarred, both physically and mentally.

How many of them could count on better support upon their return if the Conservatives made the effort to save billions of dollars on the purchase of the F-35s by using a tendering process?

Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, according to the parliamentary budget officer, these 65 fighter jets would cost at least $30 billion. Even our Bloc colleagues have joined the Liberals in opposing this hasty and unreasonable purchase. Furthermore, the Conservatives have rushed through this contract so quickly that they obtained only crumbs for Quebec's aerospace industry.

Now that the majority of this House is opposed to the purchase, what are the Conservatives waiting for to launch a bidding process?

Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. The purpose of this report is to place the proceedings of the Committee’s meeting of Thursday, December 9, 2010, concerning what appears to be a possible breach of privilege, officially before the House.

Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are trying to hide the real cost of their prison policies, but now the cat is out of the bag. At yesterday's Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates meeting, the Commissioner of Correctional Service Canada, Mr. Head, said that at least 4,000 new prison guards would have to be hired in the next two years. In payroll alone, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

How many billions will the whole policy cost?

Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, then why did they make cuts to victim support programs? It is a matter of choice. The Conservatives would rather build megaprisons than improve support for family caregivers. The Conservatives would rather hire prison guards than give small businesses real tax support, even though small businesses provide over half of all jobs to Canadians.

Those are the Conservatives' choices, but will there be anything left to help family caregivers or support our small businesses?