Senator Boisvenu: Thank you, because I will give Senator Gold a lead.

Senator Gold, you know that Canada is in urgent need of warships and Polar-class icebreakers in the North.

We know that this is about jobs, but it’s also about Canadians’ ability to pay for these ships, so it’s very important that we get an estimate. Why, then, has the Parliamentary Budget Officer already provided an estimate of $7 billion for the construction of those ships?

My question is this: If the Parliamentary Budget Officer can publish the cost estimates of those two ships, why can’t the minister and the government do the same? Perhaps the minister could give the Parliamentary Budget Officer a call and he’d have the answer to her question.

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, the Standing Committee on National Defence is very concerned about security in the Arctic, as you know. In Senate Question Period, the minister responsible for the Canadian Coast Guard said that she would provide a cost estimate for the procurement of two Polar-class icebreakers.

However, in a response tabled yesterday, her department is refusing to make that information public. One of the excuses given is that your government has not yet signed a contract with either the Davie or Vancouver shipyards. However, the Trudeau government has released cost estimates for surface combatant ships, even though no contract has yet been signed.

Explain the logic to me, leader. Why has the government provided cost estimates for the construction of warships when it has no cost estimates for the Polar-class icebreakers?