F-35 program to get overhaul after scathing AG report
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OK - Tell us you resign - From what I do not know. You are no longer addicted to the Globe, so can't ask for that.
We need details, then we will decide. I suggest a thread please and thank you
The F-35 affair is a fiasco from top to bottom: Andrew Coyne | Full Comment | National Post
Looks like the Harper Canadian Govs sinkin all the money from the jets into Public security .
..is all so ridiculous ..
This was all so predictable.
Cut the losses ; buy some drone planes; ...Build a wall around Canada..
Call it HarperLand Amuzement.
..is all so ridiculous ..
This was all so predictable.
Cut the losses ; buy some drone planes; ...Build a wall around Canada..
Call it HarperLand Amuzement.
What is the saying Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive
The current government either demonstrated they are the most incompetent bunch
or they intended to slide this by in the dead of political night. Either way this is going
to blow up and someone will feel the shrapnel of the fallout politically.
No the Prime Minister is not going to resign but depending on how they try to restore
public confidence, his reputation could suffer severe damage.
Someone has to resign or be turfed for this. The rhetoric and public opinion is going to
demand it. Isn't it funny we are going to dismantle pensions for the generation right
behind the old guys while buying a bunch of aircraft at inflated prices and they might
not do what we expect them to do. This is a long way from over.
The current government either demonstrated they are the most incompetent bunch
or they intended to slide this by in the dead of political night. Either way this is going
to blow up and someone will feel the shrapnel of the fallout politically.
No the Prime Minister is not going to resign but depending on how they try to restore
public confidence, his reputation could suffer severe damage.
Someone has to resign or be turfed for this. The rhetoric and public opinion is going to
demand it. Isn't it funny we are going to dismantle pensions for the generation right
behind the old guys while buying a bunch of aircraft at inflated prices and they might
not do what we expect them to do. This is a long way from over.
In the Private Sector - heads, many would roll.
Here are some that should be walking the plank.
F-35 debacle sees Canadians nearly played for fools: John Ivison | Full Comment | National Post
Thomas Mulcair’s question in the House of Commons got to the nub of the F-35 debacle. “Can the Prime Minister tell us who in his Cabinet is responsible for the F-35s?” asked the NDP leader.
The answer is still not clear. Peter MacKay, the Defence Minister, Rona Ambrose, the Public Works Minister, and Julian Fantino, the Associate Minister of Defence, were all on their feet during Question Period Wednesday, as if to highlight their overlapping authority, or perhaps culpability.
The lack of challenge function from the cheerleaders in the Minister’s offices is obvious. But the civilians within National Defence also fell short. Testimony before the Defence Committee in October 2010 makes plain that Dan Ross, Mr. Williams’ successor as ADM (Materiel), was as big a fan of the project as Mr. MacKay.
Mackay, Fantino and the complete douchebag that is Chris Alexander should go.
Ambrose looks like she could actually have a shred of credibility.
Ambrose looks like she could actually have a shred of credibility.
I find it interesting that Canadair produced over 1800 Sabre jets (unit cost $240,000.00 each)for the price of two or three F-35s.
By the same token the cost of one F-35 represents the price of almost six CF-18s.
I realise that the Sabres were built quite a few years ago but the CF-18s are still a faster aircraft than the F-35. Granted, the F-35 has
a lot more bells and whistles than the F-18 but right now we don't know just how many bells and whistles the F-35 will end up with.
By the same token the cost of one F-35 represents the price of almost six CF-18s.
I realise that the Sabres were built quite a few years ago but the CF-18s are still a faster aircraft than the F-35. Granted, the F-35 has
a lot more bells and whistles than the F-18 but right now we don't know just how many bells and whistles the F-35 will end up with.
Auditor general stands by F-35 conclusions
Auditor General Michael Ferguson said today he can't explain why the departments of National Defence and Public Works disagree with his conclusions on how they handled the F-35 fighter jet process, but he stands by the findings.
He concluded in his spring report, tabled Tuesday, that those departments didn't apply due diligence in the process for acquiring new fighter jets. He reported that the departments accept the facts and the single recommendation in his audit, but don’t agree with the conclusions.
During an appearance at the public accounts committee, Ferguson faced questions from opposition MPs on what they said appears to be a confusing position – how can the departments accept his recommendation but not his conclusions?
Ferguson's single recommendation in the F-35 chapter of his report is for the Department of National Defence to refine its cost estimates for buying and operating the new fleet of planes, chosen to replace the aging CF-18s.
"The reason that we put the statement in the report that the departments disagreed with our conclusions was because it was out of the ordinary to have that type of a response from a department or from departments," Ferguson told MPs.
'Our conclusions are right'
The report revealed that DND estimated the cost of buying and maintaining the planes for 20 years would be $25 billion, but a year later, in March 2011, when it responded to a report by parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, it said the program would only cost $15 billion.
"I think in this particular instance, because our recommendation was so focused, that it's not totally inconsistent, the position that they took. However again, we feel very strongly that our conclusions are right based on the objective and criteria that we set and the evidence that we looked at," he said.
"They did agree with the facts, but the reason why they would have disagreed with the conclusions is something that only the departments can answer," he said.
Government accepts AG's conclusions
The individual departments told the auditor general they didn't agree with his conclusion that they didn’t exercise due diligence, but the government as a whole does, according to Conservative MP Andrew Saxton.
He told the committee that "the government has accepted the conclusions and the recommendation of the auditor general in Chapter 2 of his spring report."
Defence Minister Peter MacKay also said in question period Wednesday that "the auditor general has provided conclusions and made recommendations, and we have accepted those."
The government announced a number of measures in response to Ferguson’s report immediately after it was tabled. They include stripping responsibility for the acquisition from the Defence Department, and handing the file to Public Works and setting up a special F-35 secretariat.
Ferguson was asked whether the measures adequately address his concerns and he responded that it's difficult for him to say but they "appear to be steps in the right direction."
Auditor general stands by F-35 conclusions - Canada - CBC News
CPP is heavily invested in the defense industry. I'm not surprised they were banking on the F35 going through.
With all of Europe getting free iron domes or similar for free why are we buying planes that can't even reach the new front-lines. We will need some tankers to fill the tankers that fill the fighters.
What's that you say, even then we aren't safe from Iran???
What's that you say, even then we aren't safe from Iran???
And from the National Post a Con paper that knows how to kick Con ass.
The F-35 rips a hole in Stephen Harper's unsinkable government | Full Comment | National Post
Clearly, somebody, somewhere in the government is due to take a very short walk off a long pier. Do you fire the military commanders who clearly did everything they possibly could to acquire the F-35s without undergoing proper procurement procedures and then fabricating a list of things they needed in a fighter jet so that the list dovetailed nicely with the specs for the F-35?
Or do you fire the people in the defence department who didn’t tell their superiors about the impending mountain of aforementioned manure about to fall on their heads? Or do you expect the defence minister to accept Thomas Mulcair’s suggestion that the loonie stops at the minister’s desk, and offer his resignation so that Stephen Harper can shuffle him some place else?
Or do you turf Julian Fantino, who is currently backing away from the spotlight as quickly and unsubtly as a man wearing orange at a St.Patty’s Day parade? Please don’t look at me, I just work here. One gets the sense, however, as one reads through older news articles quoting Fantino, that the writing has been on the wall for quite some time, and the language of the minister for military procurement had been evolving from certainty about the necessity of F-35s to one very much ambiguous about their future.
The bad news is the Auditor-General’s report puts a giant cannon-sized hole in the F-35 procurement and its budget. The bad news is that the procurement appears to have been manipulated to ensure a sole-sourced, untendered contract with Lockheed Martin which has or has not been signed, depending on which part of the government you ask at a certain time of the day.
The bad news is that the defence minister and the procurement minister had no idea about any of this, depending on which side of their mouth their speaking from at any given moment. The bad news is that the defence department itself told the House of Commons that cost data provided by U.S. authorities had been validated by U.S. experts and partner countries, which was not accurate at the time.
OK, that’s all the bad news. Well, probably not, but it’s probably enough for now. On to the not-so-bad news. The Conservative government, while deservingly drowning in its own arrogance for shouting down those who suggested the whole deal was rotten from the start, is not really complicit in this scandal so much as it is woefully negligent. At the very least it appears to be accepting some responsibility now, having frozen spending on the program, spanked the defence department, and handed oversight to a committee of deputy ministers.
Is it at all ironic that Kevin Page, the man who was hired as Parliamentary Budget Officer in part to fill the government’s promise of transparency and accountability, was the one who foreshadowed all of this long ago by saying the government’s numbers on this contract were wrong? And does it make it even more ironic that this same man, who estimated the costs were nearly $10 billion greater than the government was saying, gets by on a departmental budget of $1.8 million? Perhaps the feds should cut Mr. Page’s budget to $49 and give him coupons to Tim Hortons so he won’t cause so much trouble in the future.
The only actual good news I can extract from all this is that the money for these jets hasn’t yet been wasted, which saves Harper his Airbus moment in power. Which is sort of like finding a wooden plank to float on after stepping off the Titanic. Who will play the role of Jack, slipping quietly into the deep blue sea?
Lots of pitchforks, tar, feathers, and something to light them up.Okay, now we need some veterans and some pitchforks.
Why do you want to perforate Veterans with pitchforks?Okay, now we need some veterans and some pitchforks.
You mean you actually thought I thought you wanted to perforate Veterans with pitchforks?
Why exactly are you telling ME, to lighten up?
Oh ya, your obviously poor perception skills.