Ignatieff vows to scrap F-35 jet deal

Michael Ignatieff says a Liberal government would cancel the Conservatives' multibillion-dollar purchase of F-35 fighter jets and hold an open competition to replace Canadas CF-18s.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, the Liberal leader said Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report this week slamming the Conservative government's handling of two purchases of military helicopters is a "wake-up call" to Parliament and to Canadians.

"We need to clean up this whole process," Ignatieff said outside his party's weekly caucus meeting.

"The process is going to get worse and worse and worse, withmore waste of taxpayers' money, unless we get a truly competitive bid. Thats essentially what the auditor general says and we agree with her."

The fighters come with anestimated price tag of $14 billion to $16 billion andwould replaceCanada's fleet of CF-18s that recently underwent a $2.6-billion upgrade. The CF-18s are expected to reach the end of their operational life by 2020.

But Ignatieff said that cost estimates for the F-35s have risen exponentially in recent years, much like the $11-billion price tag forthe new Sikorsky Cyclone and Chinook helicopters that were the subject of the scathing report by Fraser on Tuesday.

"They were sent out to buy a Chevrolet and they brought back a Ferrari,"he said."And they still don't have the keys to the Ferrari."

Ignatieffalso insisted there would be no penalties accrued under the accord for the F-35 purchase if it were cancelled.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's governmenthas defended the sole-sourcedpurchase of up to 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets from U.S. company Lockheed Martin, arguing they are the only fifth-generation fighter jets on the market and are the best aircraft availablefor Canada's military.

Jobs, spinoffs threatened: PM

During Wednesday's question period,Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton accused the Conservatives of making the same mistakeswith the F-35 contractas the ones Fraser was condemning in the Chinook purchase.

The prime minister, in turn, said the opposition"coalition"was playing politics with the lives of the men and women of the Canadian Forces, as well as Canadian aerospace jobs over a process started by the Liberals.

As for the helicopter purchases, Harper said the government will implement Fraser's recommendations, but placed the blame on aprevious Liberal government that cancelled a contract 17 years agoand "paid a billion dollars to get no helicopters at all."

"We will not make the same mistake when it comes to replacing the CF-18s," Harper told the House.

"Were going to buy the best equipment for the Canadian Forces, and weve already got work going to the aviation sector across the country that the coalition will put in jeopardy and this government will not."

A previous Liberal government signed a memorandum of understanding with Lockheed Martin to develop the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but that did not commit Canada to buy the aircraft.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said scrapping the deal would threaten up to $12 billion in industrial opportunities for Canadian aerospace suppliers and any "pointless" politicizing of theissue is "exactly the opposite of what industry needs right now."

"To do what Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party and his allies want to do could in fact jeopardize every job and every potential job related already to the F-35 purchase,"Clement said Wednesday in a speech to theAerospace Industries Association of Canada conference in Ottawa.

"To date, our government has invested approximately $168 million in the JSF program, resulting in more than $350 million in contracts awarded to Canadian companies, research laboratories and universities."

From Cadillacs to Ferraris

Harper'sConservatives have also responded toIgnatieff's criticism of the F-35bypointing tothe taxpayer cost of aprevious fiascoinvolving a past Liberal government'scancellation ofmilitaryequipmentcontracts.

In 1992, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Conservatives announced they would spend $4.8 billion to buy 50 state-of-the-art EH-101 helicoptersfrom European Helicopter Industries Ltdto replace Canada's aging fleet of Sea Kings.

But during the 1993 federal election, Liberal Leader Jean Chrtien and his Liberals attacked the Tory plan as wasteful, calling the EH-101 a "Cadillac" helicopter. When the Liberals won and Chrtien became prime minister, one of his first acts was to scrap the Tory deal, an act that cost the Canadian government nearly $500 million in cancellation fees.

The first of the Sikorsky Cyclone CH-148 helicopters purchasedby the Liberal government of Paul Martin to replace the Sea Kingsis now scheduled to be delivered in 2012, four years after the original deadline set in the 2004 purchase agreement.