The F-35 Up North

A new Canadian report on the F-35 program criticizes the Canadian defense ministry's handling of the procurement process for the multibillion-dollar endeavor. Issued by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, the 42-page report says the ministry did not appropriately plan with other Canadian government entities to manage the unique procurement aspects of the program. In a related statement, the auditor general notes that the defense ministry "did not acknowledge that the decision to purchase the F-35 was well under way four years before it was officially announced."

The audit report also states that the defense ministry "likely underestimated the full life-cycle costs of the F-35," adding that parliamentarians were not provided with complete cost information or fully informed about the risks involved. "The budgets for the F-35 acquisition (CAN$9 billion) and sustainment (CAN$16 billion) were initially established in 2008 without the aid of complete cost and other information," the report states. "Some of that information will not be available until years from now. If the budgets prove insufficient to cover total costs, the Department will have to find ways to cover additional costs that may be incurred. Alternatively, it may have to seek additional funds from the government or use funds from other parts of its capital or operating budgets."

The Globe and Mail reports the "scathing report . . . will fuel a political headache for the Harper government, which has ignored years of opposition attacks on the matter and which was fully committed to the F-35 until a few weeks ago."