Evidence of meeting #40 for Public Accounts in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was f-35.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Michael Ferguson  Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
John Reed  Principal, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
Jerome Berthelette  Assistant Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

10:45 a.m.

Conservative

Chris Alexander Conservative Ajax—Pickering, ON

Mr. Byrne—

10:45 a.m.

Liberal

Gerry Byrne Liberal Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL

Mr. Chair, I don't accept this. We have a protocol in this committee.

10:45 a.m.

Conservative

Chris Alexander Conservative Ajax—Pickering, ON

Mr. Byrne said “asserted”—

10:45 a.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP David Christopherson

No, no, that's a—

10:45 a.m.

Conservative

Chris Alexander Conservative Ajax—Pickering, ON

—and the government does not accept the direction—

10:45 a.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP David Christopherson

Shut off that mike!

10:45 a.m.

Liberal

Gerry Byrne Liberal Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL

What is the point of order?

10:45 a.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP David Christopherson

Stop it right now! Order! What the heck's going on here?

Mr. Alexander, you are a guest here and I expect you to follow the rules, and the rules are that mike stays off and you are done.

Thank you. And I—

10:45 a.m.

Conservative

Chris Alexander Conservative Ajax—Pickering, ON

I expect Mr. Byrne to tell truth.

10:45 a.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP David Christopherson

Excuse me, if you say one more word, there will be consequences. I strongly advise you to remain quiet.

Thank you, Mr. Ferguson. We very much appreciate your attendance here today and we thank you for your indulgence.

I have one quick question that I want to squeeze in.

Under “Observations” on page 10, you mentioned that officials from National Defence have contributed to all phases of the project for 15 years, that we've had people on the senior decision-making and technical committees from day one, and we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars incenting industry in Canada to be in a position where they could bid on the worldwide contracts that will result from the F-35 production.

In terms of the practical inevitability of whether or not the F-35 would be the choice, or whether there was any chance that another plane could be chosen, how could another plane be an option at all, given that we've had people on the senior management committee and on the technical committee for almost 15 years and we've spend hundreds of millions of dollars? From a practical point of view, how realistic was it or is it that the government was ever going to pick anything other than the F-35?

10:45 a.m.

Auditor General of Canada, Office of the Auditor General of Canada

Michael Ferguson

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The item in the chapter that speaks to that is that, in 2008, National Defence, themselves, said it would be exceedingly difficult to hold a fair competition that includes the F-35. That's why we were concerned, in the chapter, that many things were taken out of sequence and proper analysis wasn't done when it needed to have been done. It was simply because each step along the way was leading more and more toward the F-35. That's also why we felt Public Works needed to have been brought in to this whole exercise, before 2010, in order to sort out what the proper procurement strategy should be.

We were concerned that the various stages along the way were leading more and more toward the acquisition of the F-35, and there needed to have been more due diligence applied throughout that process.

10:45 a.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP David Christopherson

Very good. Thank you so much.

With that, colleagues, we will conclude.

Mr. Ferguson, you are excused. Thank you again, sir, for being here today. We appreciate it.

Colleagues, this committee meeting now stands adjourned.