Throughout the 2011 election campaign, the Conservatives insisted repeatedly that no matter what transpired among the 10 partner nations, and regardless of reported delays and cost overruns, Canada would spend $15 billion to acquire and operate 65 fighter jets for a 20-year lifespan.
To further alleviate voter concerns, Defence Minister Peter MacKay flew down to Fort Worth, Texas, to tour Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production facilities. After a brief inspection, MacKay told any reporter who would listen that the whole program looked cool to him. He promised the acquisition would come in on time — and on budget.
Subsequent reports by both the parliamentary budget officer and the auditor general have cast serious doubts on MacKay’s prediction.
After crunching the numbers, the auditor general concluded that the F-35 purchase will set taxpayers back at least $25 billion — a whopping $10 billion more than the Conservatives have admitted to the Canadian public.
Unrepentant DND and government officials are attempting to shrug off this massive discrepancy as nothing more than a simple difference in accounting principles, rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead citizens. (Fellow taxpayers should keep this F-35 defence handy for any future Revenue Canada audit. But I digress.)
To be fair to MacKay and his senior bureaucrats, it would be a very difficult task to attempt to predict a finite cost of purchasing and operating a new generation fighter aircraft for the next 20 to 30 years. This is especially true given that the F-35 is still in the development phase, and no unit price per plane has been established. As for future maintenance expenses, only a crystal ball could determine the magnitude of these potential costs.
That being said, let’s take a look at how accurate MacKay and company have been at predicting and calculating far more tangible present-day operational costs.
Last June, at the height of the conflict in Libya, when Parliament was debating whether or not to extend Canada’s contribution to the mission by another three months, MacKay was asked to calculate the monetary cost. His estimate was roughly $60 million for a full six-month operation. That same month, the Rideau Institute, an independent Ottawa-based think-tank, released its own estimate of $85 million for the same six-month mission.
When asked to comment on the projected difference, MacKay smugly retorted, “The Rideau Institute, as so often is the case, is wrong.”
On Oct. 28, eight days after the death of Moammar Gadhafi and three days before Canada officially ended its mission, MacKay gleefully told the CBC that Canada’s effort in the Libyan war had in fact come in under budget.
“As of Oct. 13, the figures have us well below ($60 million); somewhere under $50 million.”
All of that premature gloating might explain why the final tally was quietly buried in a report tabled in the House of Commons last week. It turns out that total expenditure for the Libyan operation cost Canadian taxpayers $347.5 million. If one subtracts the normal operating expenses such as salaries, the incremental cost still amounts to roughly $100 million — or double what MacKay initially boasted to the taxpayers.
Ironically, if one factors in the additional month of combat operations that was required beyond the Rideau Institute’s initial projection, the think-tank’s prediction was only off target by two per cent.
In preparation for our eventual victory in Libya, on Oct. 2, 2011, more than three weeks before hostilities ended, the Privy Council Office authorized the expenditure of $396,000 for DND to stage a victory parade.
That spectacular event was held on Nov. 24, complete with marching bands and a flypast that included more aircraft than we had put into the skies over Libya. Once again, when the final bills were tabulated, the cost of the spectacle was $850,000.
A spokesman for MacKay explained to journalists that such flypasts and parades are all good training for the troops and aircrew. A similar rationale was used to explain the $32,000 cost of sending a military search and rescue helicopter to pluck MacKay from his fishing lodge in July 2010.
Original Article
Source: the chronicle herald
Author: SCOTT TAYLOR
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