Mr. Speaker, I would remind the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence that experts are saying that the government is definitely on the wrong path and has been misleading Canadians on the capability gap.
As a matter of fact, there is an organization under National Defence called Defence Research and Development Canada. It is a research division of National Defence. It wrote, back in 2014, that there was no need to pursue a bridging option. It went on to say, “The costs involved with bridging options make them unsuitable for filling capability gaps in the short term. Any short term investment results in disproportionately high costs during the bridging period.”
Lieutenant-General Ken Pennie, former chief of the air staff, said back in the fall that this is a politically motivated decision and that he certainly would never recommend that.
Again, politics are completely obscuring the ability of the Royal Canadian Air Force to get the right plane at the right dollar and in the right amount of time, because we know that the current fleet of CF-18s can only fly until 2025. Going beyond that is really going to undermine the ability of Canada to be a trusted partner.
If the government was so concerned about fulfilling our obligations to NORAD, NATO, and our own national security, it would get on with an open and fair competition immediately.