Civil servants given lifetime gag order on fighter jets

Over 200 federal officials sworn to secrecy

• More than 200 federal civil servants involved in replacing Canada’s aging fighter jet fleet have been forced to swear they will not discuss the project for the rest of their lives.

Revelations of the “lifetime” non-disclosure agreements come as the government prepares to start negotiations with U.S. aerospace giant Boeing Co. to purchase 18 Super Hornets.

The government says it needs the Hornets to address an urgent shortage of warplanes until a competition to replace all 77 of Canada’s CF-18s can be finished — a process it says could take up to five years.

Critics say the air force does have enough planes and the decision to buy Hornets now and punt a competition to later is part of a larger Liberal plan to avoid buying the controversial F-35 stealth fighter.

National Defence spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier says 235 officials were required to sign the permanent non-disclosure agreements starting in January to “remind” employees of their obligations to keep secrets.

“Given the subject-matter and commercial sensitivities associated with the work, it was deemed to be an appropriate and necessary procedure,” he said in an email.

Federal procurement officials have been occasionally required to sign such documents in the past, particularly when it comes to selecting a winning bid, Le Bouthillier said.

However, he said, “in this case, a non-disclosure is principally used as a reminder to ensure sensitive and corporate information is protected in the long term.”

Two former military procurement chiefs told The Canadian Press in separate interviews that they had never seen such agreements used for procurement projects before.

“I can’t recall anyone in any of my project teams having to do that,” said Alan Williams, who served as assistant deputy minister of matériel at National Defence from 2000 to 2005. “Any of our people, I trust them to use their judgment.”

Dan Ross, who oversaw the F-35 project from 2005 to 2012 as assistant deputy minister of matériel, said there are significant technical and commercial secrets at stake with the jet program.

But he said such secrets are protected with existing security classifications, which carry the threat of prison time and have proven more than sufficient.