After a three-hour NDP hearing on Parliament Hill where four expert witnesses denounced the F-35 procurement—with one former government procurement official accusing the Department of National Defence of lying in a letter to the Public Works Department before the government announced the acquisition in 2010—NDP MP Jack Harris (St. John’s East, Nfld.) said the his party’s fight against the F-35 procurement once Parliament resumes will be “about democracy.”
Mr. Harris was speaking after the experts, including a former member of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, told five NDP MPs at a special hearing the party called over the F-35 that the eventual cost of the aircraft will be from $40-billion to $50-billion over 30 years.
One of the experts said the sophisticated next-generation attack aircraft contravenes Canada’s longstanding defence policies and military purpose, another said government departments used “deception” as they pushed the project ahead and Mr. Harris concluded later that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) Conservative government has mismanaged the project to the point of “boondoggle.”
“This morning, we started a new debate, and the new debate is about is this the plane that Canadians want?” Mr. Harris said after the Canadian experts heaped criticism on the F-35 procurement and a U.S. military analyst said aviation experts in the U.S. have called U.S. Department of Defence cost projects for the aircraft “hogwash.”
The New Democrats organized the meeting after the government refused last June to hear experts, several of whom spoke out on Tuesday, during Commons Public Accounts Committee hearings on the F-35 acquisition prior to Parliament’s summer recess.
Mr. Harris and the other New Democrats—Malcolm Allen (Welland, Ont.), Matthew Kellway (Beaches-East York, Ont.), Christine Moore (Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Que.), and Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe (Pierrefonds-Dollard, Que.)—picked up where the opposition left off last June after the government ended testimony at the Public Accounts Committee before the opposition could call the outside witnesses they wanted.
Asked after the session what the NDP could do to stop the procurement—currently on hold in response to a scathing report from Auditor General Michael Ferguson last April—Mr. Harris said “the voters ultimately decide.”
“Our job is to present the case to the people of Canada,” said Mr. Harris, a former leader of the provincial NDP in Newfoundland and Labrador who is the NDP defence critic. “We’re doing that here in Ottawa today. We’ll do it here in Ottawa when the House opens in September. That’s what we’re doing to stop it. We’re going to challenge the government. We’re going to continue to point out what’s wrong.”
Mr. Harris said Canadians “will listen, and they will respond in terms of public opinion, that’s what it’s all about.”
When it was pointed out the government could sign a contract prior to the 2015 federal election to purchase its first batch of F-35 aircraft with delivery two years from that point, and leave a new government in the position of having to cancel it following an election, Mr. Harris replied: “Everything is not black and white. There is a long road from here to there. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We can’t predict the future. Obviously we [the NDP] would seek a change of government and we would seek a policy that more meets the needs of Canadians.”
On the question of being in the position of having to cancel a contract if one is signed before the election, Mr. Harris replied: “These are matters of negotiation, and as I say it’s not black and white.”
The Liberal Party as early as 2010, prior to the 2011 federal election, has taken the position it would cancel the F-35 project and hold a competition to decide which aircraft Canada should buy to replace the F-18s.
One of Mr. Ferguson’s chief criticisms of the F-35 procurement was the absence of a competitive bid. Although National Defence in 2008 reviewed three other fighter jets, it concluded only the F-35 met Canada’s requirements, but has never made public the full set of requirements for Canadian defence and sovereignty needs.
Military writer and analyst Winslow Wheeler, who has 40 years experience with U.S. national security issues working in the U.S. Senate and the Government Accountability Office, told the panel he did not understand why Canada’s Department of National Defence and the Conservative government has claimed the cost of flying the new stealth aircraft will be similar to operating costs for Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18 Hornet fighter jets.
“I don’t know whether it’s incompetence or crookedness,” the frank-speaking Mr. Winslow said, advising the MPs to ensure that National Defence and the Public Works Department are aware Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page and the auditor general will scrutinize the F-35 procurement once it goes ahead, as expected, after an outside audit of new cost forecasts is complete.
Alan Williams, a former assistant deputy minister of procurement in National Defence who signed a 2002 memorandum of understanding on joint F-35 development on behalf of Canada, said the memorandum allowed Canadian firms to participate in the plane’s production, but did not require eventual acquisition.
Mr. Williams, who has published a book picking apart the acquisition and revealing its shortcomings, was harsh as he criticized the sole-source aspect of the project before the NDP panel.
He held up a letter written by a senior National Defence department a month before the government announced in 2010 that it had decided to procure 65 F-35 jets. He pointed out the letter was one page, only 150 words and that it advised the Public Works Department that a sole-source acquisition for the aircraft was legal because the F-35 was the only plane in production that could meet Canada’s requirement for a stealth fighter plane.
“The letter is a lie,” Mr. Williams said. “I’ve never seen such manipulation to justify a purchase.”
Canadian military writer Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit des Corps and a columnist for Embassy Magazine, said he could imagine no scenario in which Canada would be in need of a stealth attack warplane like the F-35—which is officially called the Joint Strike Fighter by Lockheed Martin and the consortium of countries involved in its production.
“We should be honest with the public and say we’re buying a day one, sneak attack stealth aircraft,” Mr. Taylor said.
University of Ottawa professor Phillipe Legassé, a military procurement expert, pointed out the government has never made public the reason why it believes the F-35 is the only aircraft that fits Canada’s needs, and has not revealed the policy requirements for procuring the aircraft.
He said the outside review of the acquisition, with a Nov. 27 deadline for reporting to the government, should have the authority to determine whether the F-35 meets the government’s defence policy requirements.
Mr. Harris said the NDP invited public servants from the departments involved and representatives from the aeronautics industry, including Lockheed Martin, but those individuals “chose not to attend.”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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