Mr. Speaker, the reality is that our military personnel needed these new fighter jets years ago. The Conservative government was unable to deliver the equipment that our forces needed. That is why we are launching an open and transparent process to replace our entire fleet of fighter jets. In the meantime, we will need interim jets to fulfill our NORAD and NATO responsibilities. That is a reality that the Conservative government left us to deal with.
In the House of Commons on December 12th, 2017. See this statement in context.