QUESTION PERIOD — National Defence
Aircraft Procurement
March 29, 2022
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.
Leader, the Harper government decided to proceed with the procurement of the F-35 fighter jets nearly 12 years ago now, but the current Prime Minister — and who knows whether to call him Liberal or NDP — said he would not buy those fighter jets. He told Canadians that the aircraft did not work and were a long way from ever working.
Yesterday the Liberal or NDP Prime Minister finally announced his intention to commit not to a purchase, but to a negotiation with Lockheed Martin to procure the F-35s. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the German government took immediate action to boost its defence budget and purchase F-35 fighters for its air force.
Other countries did the same. The British, the Americans, the Belgians, the Norwegians, the Italians, the Japanese, the Poles and the Danes all did just that. Once again, our Prime Minister did not make a decision to purchase them, but rather to negotiate to purchase them.
Leader, with war raging in Europe for over a month now, why can’t your government admit that it made a mistake by halting the purchase, by waiting 12 years before starting to negotiate the purchase of the F-35s? Canada is increasingly becoming the butt of jokes that I hate, saying that we don’t have armed forces, we have unarmed forces.
Thank you for your question. The Government of Canada is pleased to have reached this stage. For the benefit of those who have not followed the story of the F-35s closely, you forgot to mention that when the decision was made in 2010 by the minority government led by Stephen Harper, it was done without a call for tenders. Then there was a motion of non‑confidence in Parliament for that government’s lack of transparency on this issue, even following the election of a majority government; the project was dropped.
The Government of Canada brought in an open and transparent process, and a recommendation was made to pursue discussions with Lockheed Martin. I believe that today, we have an appropriate and transparent process for ensuring that our soldiers will have the necessary tools not only to protect our sovereignty here and in the North, but also to contribute to defending the interests of democratic countries around the world.
Leader, seven years later, with a so-called transparent process, we end up with the same procurement, but seven years behind and with a substantial increase in cost and a utilization deficit to the point where we are forced to buy used F-18s from Australia, which were no longer good enough for the Australians. We had to repair and fix those to be able to use them.
In light of the response you have given us, can you tell us why the government is continuing to negotiate with Lockheed Martin and not just putting in an order to try to salvage the situation and minimize the damage that has been done by your government?
Once again, I thank my colleague for his question. As I said, the government brought in an open and transparent process that is appropriate in this context, and this process has stages. We are at a specific stage now and will see this process through.
