Retired Col. Paul Maillet told a news conference on Parliament Hill Wednesday that the estimated $25-billion the government intends to spend on the fighter jets, ground-attack jets that will be challenged by sovereignty and other flights in Canada’s Arctic, could be spent elsewhere while the government extends the CF-18 life and skips the generation of super-sophisticated F-35s entirely.
Also Tuesday, the federal Treasury Board was unable to immediately explain a mysterious correction it made on its website to a Department of National Defence report to Parliament on the F-35 program, which appeared to downgrade the development phase of the project.
The correction, described an “erratum” entry in the National Defence report to Parliament on Plans and Priorities for the 2011-12 fiscal year, changed the development phase to an “options” consideration phase.
“Subsequent to the tabling of the Department of National Defence's Report on Plans and Priorities 2011/12, a typographical error in the section III Supplementary Information, specifically the 'Status Report on Transformational Projects and Major Crown Projects,' on the Next Generation Fighter Capability (NGFC) has been corrected. The NGFC Project Phase 'Definition' has been replaced with 'Option Analysis,' " the correction states.
The Department of National Defence was also unable to explain the change as of late Tuesday afternoon.
In the Commons, Liberal Leader Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.) and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) went on the offensive again against Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), with Mr. Rae again accusing Mr. Harper of misleading Parliament in past statements about the project.
Mr. Rae referred to responses from Mr. Harper in November 2010, and accused the Prime Minister of falsely suggesting then that a contract to purchase F-35s had already been signed. Although Canada has signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. and other countries to develop the plane, no acquisition contract has yet been signed.
At the time, then Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, pressing the government to suspend the project and hold an open competition to select a new fighter jet for Canada, challenged Mr. Harper to consult Canadians or hold a town hall meeting.
Mr. Harper responded that Canadian companies were already working on the development stage and creating jobs.
“If the Leader of the Opposition is serious about talking to Canadians, he can go to Montreal or he can go to Winnipeg, like I did,” Mr. Harper responded to Mr. Ignatieff.
“He can go to the shop floors of the aerospace industry and tell those people he is going to tear up their jobs by tearing up the contract because he does not care about them,” Mr. Harper said.
Mr. Maillet, meanwhile, told the news conference the F-35 is the wrong fighter and interceptor jet to meet Canada’s needs.
“The bigger question is, should we be buying this aircraft, I don’t think it’s the right fit for Canada,” said Mr. Maillet, an aerospace engineer, said in response to a deluge of questions that centered on political and military reasons behind the government decision to acquire 65 F-35s. The U.S. Department of Defense recently told the U.S. Congress that it will cost a total of $1.5-trillion over 50 years to buy, operate, and maintain the 2,457 F-35s it intends to acquire.
“For $25-billion, you could fund 400,000 people in post-secondary education,” said Mr. Maillet, who has been a Green Party candidate in two federal elections.
“It’s well-known in the military that the well is bottomless,” he said as he argued regular procurement practices have been ignored for the F-35 project, including a suitable analysis of what Canada will need under the government’s Canada First defence strategy. Among other things, he told the news conference, sponsored by the Rideau Institute think tank, that the F-35, with only one engine and a shorter flight range than other fighters, will be unsuitable in Canada’s North.
Mr. Maillet argued that the F-35s will likely be eclipsed by a “tidal wave” of drone fighter jets and surveillance planes that are under development and more suitable for the kind of role Canada plans for the F-35s. The cost of the drone aircraft would be less than one-quarter the cost of the F-35s.
Mr. Maillet joins another former senior official at the Department of National Defence, retired procurement official Alan Williams, who has also been highly critical of the way the federal government is handling the program.
The government earlier this month put the project on hold following a scathing report from Auditor General Michael Ferguson while the Commons Public Accounts Committee conducts its own inquiry into Mr. Ferguson’s allegation that National Defence and the government withheld the true extent of the F-35 maintenance and operational costs from Parliament.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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