Ottawa

The F-35 on trial

The NDP will convene two public roundtables this morning on the Hill to hear what Winslow Wheeler, Philippe Lagasse, Alan Williams and Scott Taylor have to say about the F-35. Official parliamentary hearings on the matter were closed in May.

It remains unclear when the Conservatives will be providing an update on the projected cost of the F-35. When the auditor general releases his report in April, the Harper government promised to provide an update “within a maximum of 60 days from receipt of annual costing forecasts from the Joint Strike Fighter program office.” In May, Defence officials met with JSF officials in the Washington, but in June, the Harper government decided that an update would have to wait until the fall because National Defence’s estimates needed to independently validated. But as of two weeks ago, the Harper government was still looking for an auditor and the reissued tender for that job won’t close until the end of August.

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