Looks like Justin is just as secretive and restrictive as Harper is, especially when it comes to the boondoogle he's creating with the F-35 file
http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/201.../#.WDhpx1zkrHW
Quote:
OTTAWA — More than 200 federal civil servants involved in replacing Canada's aging fighter jet fleet have been forced to swear they will not discuss the project for the rest of their lives.
Revelations of the "lifetime" non-disclosure agreements come as the government prepares to start negotiations with U.S. aerospace giant Boeing to purchase 18 Super Hornets.
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Quote:
Two former military procurement chiefs told The Canadian Press in separate interviews that they had never seen such agreements used for procurement projects before.
"I can't recall anyone in any of my project teams having to do that," said Alan Williams, who served as assistant deputy minister of materiel at National Defence from 2000 to 2005.
"Any of our people, I trust them to use their judgment."
Dan Ross, who oversaw the F-35 project from 2005 to 2012 as assistant deputy minister of materiel, said there are significant technical and commercial secrets at stake with the jet program.
But he said such secrets are protected with existing security classifications, which carry the threat of prison time and have proven more than sufficient.
Both Williams and Ross said the decision to force officials to a lifetime of secrecy was worrying and a heavy-handed attempt to keep them on a tight leash.
The non-disclosure agreements were revealed in records tabled in the House of Commons this week in response to a question from Conservative defence critic James Bezan.
Bezan said he believes the Liberals are trying to hide the fact their decision to buy 18 Super Hornets and put off selecting a replacement for the CF-18s for five years is about keeping Canada from buying the F-35.
"My suspicion is that the Liberals don't want anyone talking about how this has been completely politicized, or that this isn't the plane that National Defence was recommending," he said.
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Trust me when I say that the purchase of the Superhornets is going to go bad. The promise of the so called $61 million per plane flyaway is probably going to double or triple based around the Kuwaiti purchase and the Austrailia stop gap purchase.
With Australia the flyaway price came out to about $125 million US per plane. With Kuwaiti the figure can closer to $300 million per plane. Now to be fair there were some growler varients included in the purchase for both nations, something that Canada won't be doing.
But the whole open and honest government that Trudeau was promising is rapidly going out the window and even though DND has promised a so called open competition for the next generation Canadian Fighter, the feeling is that its going to be an unfair competition where the deck is heavily stacked against the F-35 and this gag order is the first step to that end.