The Ottawa Citizen reports this hour, “The F-35 jet fighter purchase, the most persistent thorn in the federal government’s side and the subject of a devastating auditor-general’s report last spring, is dead. Faced with the imminent release of an audit by accountants KPMG that will push the total projected life-cycle costs of the aircraft above $30 billion, the operations committee of the federal Cabinet decided to scrap the controversial sole-source program and go back to the drawing board, a source familiar with the decision said.”
But the CBC reports now, “The Prime Minister’s Office denied a media report Thursday that the F-35 purchase was dead… The Harper government says it has not made a decision on the F-35 as a replacement for Canada’s CF-18 fighter jets, but the government now appears to concede that alternative fighter purchase options will be considered.” News reports add, “Boeing’s Super Hornet, Dassault’s Rafale, Saab’s Gripen, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the F-35, are seen as the leading contenders in any new contest to replace the CF-18 fleet.”
Council of Canadians water campaigner Emma Lui has written, “In late-March, the Council of Canadians landed a large toy F-35 fighter jet on Parliament Hill to demand that the federal government completely back out of plans to purchase the fighter jets and invest needed funding in critical water services. Scrapping the F-35s would free up needed funding for Canada to fulfill its legal obligation on the human right to water.” In April 2011, energy campaigner Andrea Harden stated, “For the cost of 10 fighter jets, the Canadian government could power a million homes on green electricity.”
More soon.
