Mr. Speaker, I am not going to take any lessons from the Liberals.
The PBO report that came out this spring showed that the Australian fighter jet program is going to cost us 22% more. Why? It is because the Liberals are running two sets of books.
The report that just came out from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute includes a redacted copy of the original Auditor General's report from last fall, which recommended “National Defence should not purchase interim aircraft”. It is right there, and the Liberals took it out.
The Liberals have also said that they are part of the joint strike fighter program, but there are two letters from the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of Defense indicating that jobs are at risk in Canada because Canada has not been following the rules under the memorandum of understanding between all nine partner nations.
Under the joint strike fighter program, 900 direct jobs have been created, $1.35 billion in benefits have been provided and 9,000 indirect jobs have been created. The Liberals are going to squander all of this for partisan purposes, and this is not in Canada's national interest.