Cabinet knew $25-billion cost of F-35s, says auditor general
Ferguson adds fuel to opposition parties’ fire
Canada’s auditor general dropped a bombshell Thursday when he said the Conservative government would have known before the last election that the F-35 fighter jet program would cost at least $10 billion more than what National Defence was telling Parliament and the public.
Auditor general Michael Ferguson refused to say whether the government allowed Canadians to be misled, but his comments have thrown more fuel onto a raging fire that has already seen the opposition call for House Speaker Andrew Scheer to launch an investigation.
The issue goes back to March 2011, when Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page released a major report weeks before the last federal election that estimated the F-35 would cost taxpayers nearly $30 billion.
The Defence Department responded by telling Parliament — and Canadians — that the stealth fighter would actually cost even less than the $16 billion budgeted for the program, putting the figure at $14.7 billion.
But the military did not include a number of important costs in its response, and during the course of his own study, Ferguson found the Defence Department had actually estimated as far back as June 2010 that the total cost would be at least $25 billion.
Most of the attention since Ferguson’s report was released Tuesday has been on the bureaucrats responsible for the F-35 file.
But the auditor general told report- ers Thursday that the Conservative government would have known about the $10-billion discrepancy when National Defence put forward the $14.7-billion figure in March 2011 because they were essential for longterm budget planning.
“I can’t speak to sort of an exact date,” Ferguson said. But “at the point in time, to respond to the Parliamentary Budget Office’s office, it’s my understanding that the government had that number.”
The auditor general, who was appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in November, could not say exactly who would have known the military’s true cost estimates.
But he was clear that by “government,” he was referring to the executive, namely cabinet and other members of the Conservative government, not the bureaucracy.
“That $25-billion number was something, I think, that at that time was known to government. It would have been primarily members of the executive, yes.”
The auditor general refused to say whether the government had intentionally withheld information or misled Parliament, only that it missed an opportunity to present its real cost estimates when responding to the parliamentary budget officer’s report in March 2011.
“I’m not trying to put any sort of value judgment on it,” Ferguson said. “What I’m saying is that was their opportunity to come forward with their information and they didn’t use that.”
Harper and other cabinet ministers refused to answer questions Thursday in the House on when they knew the F-35 cost estimate reached $25 billion.
Opposition parties, however, said Ferguson’s assertions were troubling, especially if the government intentionally lowballed the cost before and during the federal election.
“It’s rare in politics in Canada and elsewhere to have a government that has so intentionally given false information to government,” said NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair.
Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said, if true, “we have a real problem because that means that they were effectively misleading Parliament for many, many, many months.”