Cancel F-15 jet fighters!
2010Barry Weisleder 2010-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 10 →
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In a summer of abnormally high temperatures, a season hot with federal scandals (the census form dispute, the G20 policing issues, the ongoing Afghan prisoner torture cover-up) a big controversy concerns the Harper government’s plan to purchase 65 new F-35 jet fighters from Lockheed Martin. Buying these “flying cadillacs” would make the acquisition of the CF-18 fighter jets by the Trudeau government, and the EH-101 helicopter procurement by Brian Mulroney (subsequently reversed by Jean Chretien), look prudent by comparison—though all are a horrendous waste.
The price tag for the F-35s is $9 billion, plus $7 billion in maintenance over a 20 year period—without competing bids. That happens to be four times what the government is spending in its infrastructure stimulus fund. That fund was designed to cushion the blows of the economic crash and the ongoing global recession. Now federal spending is being curbed, in compliance with the G20 Summit prescription. It’s called ‘recovery through austerity’. (Kind of reminiscent of “Arbeit macht frei”, minus the ‘arbeit’.)
For Canada’s rulers and their military apparatus the new jets are integral to playing a role in ongoing foreign wars of intervention. What about the present war in Afghanistan? Its economic price tag, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s report, will reach up to $18.1 billion by 2011—excluding the cost of diplomatic efforts, danger pay for soldiers, and military equipment bought under accelerated procurement.
This places the financial cost to Canadian taxpayers for