The Conservative government quietly disbanded a high-level and key Public Works department secretariat in charge of reviewing the proposed $45.8-billion plan for Canada to acquire a fleet of 65 F-35 stealth warplanes, The Hill Times has learned.
The decision earlier this winter to wind down the secretariat, which the government established in 2012 to implement a multi-faceted “action plan” in response to a raging controversy over a report to Parliament from Auditor General Michael Ferguson on the F-35 acquisition, means the government had by then decided it would go ahead with a plan first announced in 2010 to acquire the U.S. Lockheed Martin fighter jets, says an expert on the F-35 project who was head of procurement at the Department of National Defence during Canada’s initial involvement in development of the aircraft in the late 1990s.
Former procurement chief Alan Williams quoted the secretariat’s mission statement, that it was “primarily responsible for the review, oversight, and coordination of the implementation of the Government's Action Plan, to ensure that the Royal Canadian Air Force acquires the fighter aircraft it needs to complete the missions asked of it by the government, and to restore the confidence of Parliament and the Canadians in the process that will be used to replace the CF-18 fleet.”
“It would therefore appear that if it has been disbanded, then the acquisition decision has been taken,” said Mr. Williams said.
Mr. Williams on Tuesday forwarded The Hill Times copies of a U.S. military briefing for the United States Secretary of the Air Force that suggested the Canadian government had proposed in 2014 to swap its acquisition slot in a 2017 production line of the F-35 in exchange for a later one already reserved for the U.S. Air Force.
In the documents, in the form of a deck of speaking remarks, the general giving the briefing said the U.S. Air Force was amenable, as long as its schedule for initial operating capability of F-35 jets was not affected. The briefing notes indicated Canada would have to deliver an initial letter of intent to acquire its first round of F-35s by November, 2014.
Another expert and participant in Canada’s aerospace industry relations with the federal government told The Hill Times on Tuesday industry participants had learned of rumours that, although Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Heritage, Alta.) full Cabinet may not have yet approved any contracts to begin acquiring F-35 planes in 2020, following an initial plan to begin acquiring the aircraft in 2017, the Treasury Board Committee of Cabinet had approved an acquisition plan.
The information suggests that over the past two weeks as Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) and his transition team were being briefed on crucial government information prior to Mr. Trudeau and his Cabinet ministers being sworn into office by Gov. Gen. David Johnson Wednesday, the incoming Liberals learned of F-35 details that could affect the cost of, or manner in which, Mr. Trudeau fulfills his election pledge that a Liberal government would not acquire the stealth jets and would instead hold an open competition to identify a new fighter jet fleet for Canada.
The secretariat was to stay in place until the government had completed its action plan in response to Mr. Ferguson’s report, including annual Department of National Defence updates to Parliament that began in 2012 on the estimated costs for acquiring, operating and maintaining a fleet of F-35s, as well as separate updates on industrial benefits to Canada through aerospace industry subcontracts to supply airframe and other components to the Lockheed Martin production line in Fort Worth, Tx.
After several requests that began last Sept. 22 for information about the status of a 2015 update to Parliament on the F-35 program, which the government has continued to take part in since Mr. Ferguson’s scathing report while also reviewing other options to replace Canada’s aging fleet of 77 CF-18 fighter jets, the Public Works Department disclosed to The Hill Times last Friday that the secretariat had been disbanded early this year because its work was done.
“The secretariat was formed to implement government’s seven-point [action] plan. As the secretariat’s work under the plan has now been completed, there are currently no plans to produce and table a 2015 annual update [on the cost of acquiring and operating a fleet of F-35s over each plane’s 30-year lifecycle],”Pierre-AlainBujold, a spokesperson with the department’s media relations branch, told The Hill Times last Thursday, Oct. 29.
Asked whether the National Fighter Procurement Secretariat still exists, Mr. Bujold provided more information the following day, in the late afternoon.
“The Secretariat was formed to implement government’s seven point plan. As that work has been completed, it was disbanded in Winter 2015,” Mr. Bujold said in his follow-up email. “PWGSC continues to support all defence procurement by providing expert negotiation and contracting services to ensure best value for Canadians.”
When The Hill Times earlier asked the Department of National Defence about a decision last fall to extend the life of the Boeing CF-18 fighter jet fleet to 2025 from an earlier plan to retire the fleet by 2020, which would have been possible under an earlier plan to begin acquiring the Lockheed Martin jets in 2017, a National Defence spokesperson reiterated a longstanding government line that no decision had yet been made on the acquisition.
“No decision has been made on the replacement of Canada’s fighter fleet,” DND spokesperson Daniel Lebouthiller said in an email last Sept. 21, in the midst of the general election campaign. “To ensure that Canada retains a fighter capability during a transition to a new fleet, National Defence has extended the life expectancy of the CF-18s to 20125.
Canada acquired its CF-18 fighter jet fleet between 1982 and 1988. The acquisition came with guaranteed industry participation and maintenance in Canada, unlike the F-35 acquisition, should it go ahead.
Former Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced in July, 2010, that Cabinet had approved a plan to replace the CF-18s, six of which are now taking part in air strikes against ISIS troops, equipment and infrastructure in northern Iraq, with Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighters, then still in development and early production stages.
“Expected delivery dates for a replacement fleet will vary depending on the government of Canada’s future fighter capability decision,” Mr. Lebouthillier said.
The secretariat briefed Cabinet in June, 2014, on the results of an intensive review of the cost and risk of acquiring fighter jets being offered by five warplane and defence jet manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin’s F-35.
The secretariat released partial results of the options, but full details of the review were not made public, other than a range of risks unidentified planes posed or did not pose. No costs for each of the options were released.
