The Hidden Costs of the F-35

At no point in my final year in Parliament was there any concrete belief in the estimated costs offered by the government for the next generation of fighter aircraft – the F-35. Every single attempt by committee, Question Period, Order Paper queries, or even through the budget estimate process to get answers was rebuffed. A lot was made last week of how Defense Ministry staff were keeping the escalating estimates away from their political masters, but that only tells half the story. I blogged at the time of sitting in Pearson airport when one of the top military brass opened a discussion with me on how he felt the jets were too expensive, and he even suggested a credible alternative. While he no doubt had been mesmerized by the F-35’s proposed capabilities, its temperamental production costs and sincere questions about its performance in Arctic conditions proved too much for him. His parting words were about if we were really serious about peacemaking as a country, we would invest more in transport helicopters than some fancy stealth machine that offered no practical purposes for Canada’s military future. You can read that blog post here.Few realize that it was the government’s failure to provide accurate costing for the jet that forced the Speaker of the House to demand such information be handed over lest the government be found in contempt of Parliament for failing to permit it to do its job. The Harper government refused, confidence was lost, the election was called, and a government that had defied the people and their Parliament achieved majority status. The ethical cost to democracy itself is only now being understood.As is the economic cost.  Let’s be clear: Canada requires a capable jet for support purposes as part of its NATO commitment and UN responsibilities. The F-35 may have appeared as the best option years ago, but in the ensuing time its performance problems and production delays have likely taken it out of consideration, even in other countries that had first expressed interest. The Auditor General last week not only stated that the government had serious transparency problems, but that in all likelihood the PM and his cabinet knew that the costs had risen from $9 billion to $15-16 billion – the largest military procurement in our history as a nation.This is where the ethical and economical costs co-join in a fashion that speaks of where Canada is at the moment. The willingness to pursue the contract despite the hefty cost increases while refusing to tell Parliament and the Canadian people is a breach of moral privilege enjoyed by any government. And it wasn’t just about accountability. The PM and his staff likely believed that Canadians just didn’t care that much, nor were they following the details closely enough to comprehend that their right to hear the truth of what was happening with their money was being pummelled by autocracy. Sadly, it turns out that the Harper Government was correct. Anything that happens in Parliament holds no interest to the majority of the Canadian populace. These are dark days.But if we aren’t interested in the deeply partisan games that fill Ottawa these days, surely there are other things about the use of our money that should carry some effect with us. There resides enough money that $6-7 billion that the government isn’t telling us about to create a national infrastructure program designed around the jobs of tomorrow, or to fix the decaying infrastructure between rural and urban Canada in a way that would better protect our food security and the jobs of growers and producers. There is more than enough money in that difference to overcome aboriginal water issues, or to put a significant dent in the numbers of children in poverty. A $6 billion dollar national initiative designed to unleash to the potential of small and medium-sized businesses would have far more effect than a jet contract that we are bound to hear will be cancelled in the ensuing months. Our health system could undergo deep remedial repair with money like that. It could lower the costs of student loans, unleashing the power of new energies and thought in Canada and the world. It could fulfill our promises on international development or establish a national program for seriously tackling climate change. Or maybe just apply it to pay off some of our debt.None of this will transpire because a government that had initially envisioned itself as a military leader and partner with America, Britain and the EU in international might has suddenly realized that this kind of expression for a peaceable country like Canada is perhaps not in our interest. The will for military might that was once so important to the Harper government has abated, but not the party pride that can’t bring itself to readjust its spending priorities to better meet the needs of average Canadians.Split the difference. Take that $6-7 billion that only contains the cost overruns and not the initial estimate and imagine what it could do in a nation that is trying to hold it together. We will choose to hold on to an exorbitant figure as a means of maintaining our arrogance as opposed to being shrewd in our economic outlook, admit we were wrong, and rebuild our country. Stubborn pride has trumped simple prudence. That is the greatest and saddest cost of this entire F-35 debacle.