What's Canada Buying? August 29, 2012

• F-35 Tug o’ War (1)  Yet ANOTHER review, this time of what’s been done to date (as opposed to reviewing the assumptions behind the choice)  “The Public Works Department secretariat now in charge of the F-35 stealth fighter jet procurement is contracting a private sector firm to review “all of the steps taken to date” in the controversial project to determine whether federal laws and procurement rules were followed prior to the Conservative government’s 2010 decision to acquire 65 of the stealth attack planes, the department says.  But the NDP opposition and a former government procurement chief who is calling for a competition to replace Canada’s aging fleet of jet fighters say the terms of the review are a slap in the face for Auditor General Michael Ferguson, whose office has already reviewed the same procurement actions and who last April issued a highly critical report to Parliament on the F-35 acquisition, including an allegation that National Defence withheld $10-billion in operating costs from the public ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2)  “Looking ahead to Canada’s procurement of a new fleet of jet fighters is becoming increasingly difficult, but there are perhaps two things Canadians should keep an eye on in the coming months. The first is how long it takes for the government’s seven-step review plan for the fighter jet procurement takes to complete, and second, how much Canadian industry is still benefitting from the F-35 development program ….”
• Wanted:  MORE asphalt repairs (~$785K’s worth) for CFB Goose Bay, “professional services support to 2 Canadian Air Division for the implementation of the Air Force Integrated Information and Learning Environment (AFIILE),” “a marine based scientific radar unit for future fitment onboard CFAV QUEST,” and someone to destroy equipment in Edmonton that we don’t want to end up in the wrong hands.
• “Keith Ashfield, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, has officially welcomed the new Canadian Coast Guard Ship ‘Vladykov’ to St. John’s.  The CCGS Vladykov is a near shore fishery research vessel named after the late Professor Vadim Dimitrievitch Vladykov, a scientist who contributed significantly to the study of fish biology in Canada and helped plan and build the Aquarium du Québec.  CCGS Vladykov is an $18m investment into the Canadian Coast Guard fleet and fishery science in Newfoundland and Labrador. In addition, the Government of Canada has committed more than $1.4bn to the Coast Guard over the past six years, including new mid-shore patrol vessels, scientific research vessels, a new hovercraft and Canada’s first polar icebreaker ….”

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