Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the reply that I received to a fairly simple question. It had to do with the F-35s and the government's maintaining that the price per plane is $75 million. It is clearly a preposterous position to take. I want to ask the Minister of National Defence whether he continues to adhere to that position.
I received one of the more lame responses that I have received to a question in question period for a long time. He said that the government budgeted $9 billion and that it has a strong mandate to obtain the plane. It seems that the minister wishes to interpret his mandate as a mandate to blow money.
The government's position is that the cost of the plane is $75 million per plane. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office, on the other hand, said it is more likely to cost $133 million to get the plane. Our own Parliamentary Budget Officer said it is closer to $150 million, which is virtually twice the cost that the government maintains, in spite of this great pile-up of facts to the contrary. We have to keep in mind that whatever price the U.S. pays is the price we will pay.
In the United States people are very skeptical of the numbers being put out by Lockheed Martin with respect to this airplane. Of course, it is based upon the assumption that 3,000, or 4,000, or 5,000 planes will actually be bought by the U.S., its various branches of the military, and the allies. If the orders are up, the price will go down, but if the orders are down, the price will go up. It is an inevitable fact of economics.
Based upon the best information available, the PBO and the U.S. Congressional Budget Office are saying that the cost at a very minimum will be $133 million to $150 million per plane. That is just the acquisition cost. In addition, there are all the back costs, which I am not going to get into.
As I said, if the orders are down, the price will be up. What does the current evidence say?
Turkey has already bailed on the program, so there goes quite a number of planes out the door.
Italy will not be able to afford anything. In fact, I doubt that Italy will be able to afford Cessnas, for goodness' sake, let alone these very sophisticated jets.
Denmark is holding an open competition. We in the Liberal Party have suggested for months if not years to the government that it can walk away at any given time from the commitment the previous government made to this process. Denmark is doing just that. It is walking away from whatever financial commitments it has made and it is holding an open competition.
Australia has given quite a strong indication that it, too, will bail on the program.
Japan, like Denmark, and as we should, is holding an open competition to get the best value for taxpayer dollars.
The U.K., Norway, and the Netherlands are stretching out their order purchases. Frequently, when a purchaser buys anything, let alone a jet plane, and stretches out the acquisition time period, it is usually an indication that maybe it is not quite so firm on the acquisition. The U.K., of course, is extremely important to this entire program because it is the next largest buyer after the U.S.
Of course, the U.S. itself is facing financial difficulties which are extraordinary and likely to make the acquisition of this plane very difficult.