F-35s – Refueling

Posted on January 31, 2011

Mr. Marc Garneau (Westmount—Ville-Marie, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, today we learned that the fighter jet the government wants to buy, the F-35, cannot be refuelled mid-air unless, of course, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars more.

When will the Prime Minister wake up and launch an open competition to save taxpayers billions of dollars and to create thousands of guaranteed jobs?

Mr. Marc Garneau (Westmount—Ville-Marie, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, the point is not whether it can be refuelled, it is the fact that the government forgot that there are hundreds of millions of dollars of extra cost because it did not plan for it. It is getting more expensive every day. Today we discover that this plane cannot be refuelled except by paying hundreds of millions of dollars more. How many hundreds of millions more and what else has the government forgotten to factor in?

 When will the government come to its senses, hold a public competition, save Canadians billions of dollars and guarantee thousands of jobs?

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