Opposition MPs push back on shutting down House probe into F-35s, Grit MP Bryne says it ‘smacks of corruption’ to close down committee

PARLIAMENT HILL—The opposition parties have held off a government attempt to shut down a Commons inquiry into Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s scathing report on the Conservative plan to spend $25-billion on a fleet of F-35 stealth fighter jets.

A closed-door meeting of the Commons Public Accounts Committee that was supposed to deal with a government motion calling for a report to the Commons after only seven hours of witness testimony adjourned abruptly Tuesday morning, with another session scheduled for Thursday.

A furious Liberal MP Gerry Byrne (Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte, Nfld.) emerged from the in-camera House Public Accounts Committee session vowing to halt the government plan to close the hearings down in the midst of contradictory testimony from Mr. Ferguson and senior Department of National Defence officials over whether DND and Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) and his Cabinet should have informed Parliament about $10-billion worth of estimated F-35s’ operating costs that were kept secret after the government announced the  procurement in 2010.

“This committee cannot shut down,” Mr. Byrne said after the meeting broke up. “This is far too important, billions of dollars are at stake. As you can tell we’ve adjourned early, there are things that are happening inside.

“I will not stop in getting to the bottom of this. I can tell you right now, it is totally inappropriate, it smacks of corruption to shut this committee down with billions of dollars at stake. I won’t let it happen,” Mr. Byrne said.

Conservative MP Andrew Saxton (Vancouver North, B.C.), the ranking government MP on the committee who is also Parliamentary to Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry-Sound-Muskoka, Ont.), refused to comment because of the secrecy requirements of in-camera Parliamentary committee meetings, a tactic the government has used consistently in this Parliament as it uses its majority to reject opposition witness proposals and motions.

“This was an in-camera meeting. I can’t discuss in-camera meetings,” Mr. Saxton said.

NDP MP Mathieu Ravignat (Pontiac, Que.) also declined to contravene the committee’s in-camera confidentiality.

“The NDP, on our side, we’re following the rules. Of course, we disagree fundamentally with having in-camera sessions with regard to important debates,” Mr. Ravignat said. “We would like to change the rules with regard to in-camera issues.”

Mr. Byrne, who initially disclosed the government plan to end the inquiry after only four meetings that sat for a total of seven hours and heard testimony only from Mr. Ferguson, Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page and senior bureaucrats and National Defence officials in charge of the F-35 acquisition, said a motion he tabled calling for more witnesses and summoning document evidence from National Defence is still before the committee.

“We’re going to see what happens in the next little while as to exactly what happens to my motion to call more witnesses and to summon documents,” Mr. Byrne said.

Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz