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Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page was asked whether he believed the government had withheld information so Canadians would not know the full cost of the aircraft. “Yes,” he replied.

OTTAWA — Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page alleged Thursday that the government withheld key information about the full costs of the F-35 stealth fighter last year in an effort to present a lower price tag to Canadians.

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The comment was made to reporters after Page told a parliamentary committee that the Defence Department did not provide him with important estimates associated with operating the F-35 — despite being ordered to do so.

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“Over the past few weeks, it has become clear that the Department of National Defence provided the PBO with figures that did not include all operating costs,” Page told members of the public accounts committee.

“The PBO understood that it had been provided with full life-cycle costs from DND as required.”

Those operating costs — which have been estimated at about $10 billion over 20 years — have become central to the question of whether Canadians were misled about the fighter jet in March 2011, weeks before the last federal election.