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August 2, 2018 | Local, Aerospace

Federal auditor general to dive into contentious fighter-jet 'capability gap'

Study will also look at how Canada will meet its 'obligations as it transitions to a new fighter fleet'

Lee Berthiaume

Canada's auditor general has started to dig into one of the Trudeau government's most contentious claims, upon which rests the fate of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars: that the country is facing an urgent shortage of fighter jets.

The claim was first made in November 2016 when the Liberals announced that Canada didn't have enough fighter jets to defend North America and simultaneously meet the country's NATO commitments, and that a stopgap was urgently needed until the entire CF-18 fleet could be replaced.

The government originally planned to buy 18 interim Super Hornets from Boeing for $6.4 billion before the deal was scuttled late last year in favour of buying 25 used jets from Australia for $500 million.

But critics, including opposition parties and former air force commanders, accuse the government of fabricating an urgent "capability gap" — as the shortfall is known — by changing the military's requirements to avoid having to buy the F-35 stealth fighter.

Auditor general Michael Ferguson is now scrutinizing this "capability gap" as part of an overall fighter-jet review, according to an internal memo written by officials at the federal procurement department and obtained by The Canadian Press through access to information legislation.

The memo to Public Services and Procurement Canada deputy minister Marie Lemay references a meeting with Ferguson's staff in December in which they laid out the objectives of their audit.

Full article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/auditor-general-fighter-jets-1.4763444

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