OTTAWA—The Conservative government is admitting for the first time it might not buy the controversial F-35 fighter jet, a project bogged down in delays and spiralling costs.

Toronto-area MP Julian Fantino, Ottawa’s point man on the purchase, conceded Tuesday that the $9 billion purchase of the stealth jet for the Royal Canadian Air Force is far from a done deal.

After years of being touted as the replacement for Canada’s aging CF-18 jets the single-engine aircraft may prove to be too costly or arrive too late.

“The . . . decision has not been made as to whether or not we are actually going to purchase, buy, acquire the F-35,” said Fantino, associate defence minister.

“We have not as yet discounted, the possibility of course, of backing out of any of the program. None of the partners have. We are not,” he told the Commons defence committee Tuesday.

“We’ll just have to think it through further as time goes on, but we are confident that we will not leave Canada or our men and women in uniform in a lurch, but it’s hypothetical to go any further right now,” Fantino said.

Those comments are a marked change for a cabinet minister and his colleagues who, until recently, have been fierce advocates of the F-35, even to the point of accusing the program’s critics of not supporting the armed forces.

It’s also a turnaround from the 2010 decision to acquire 65 of the jets, with first deliveries expected in 2016. At the time, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the F-35 was the “only” fighter that met the needs of the Canadian Forces.

But Ottawa’s unwavering support has been sorely tested as the F-35 program suffers setbacks and cost overruns. The cracks in the Conservative’ public stance began appearing last month when MacKay refused to confirm how many F-35s would be bought.

Now officials appear to have abandoned their gung-ho enthusiasm for the jet in favour of a more cautious approach while still affirming the F-35 as the best choice for the air force.

But the decision could come down to price, with Ottawa saying it doesn’t yet know how much it will have to pay for each aircraft.

“That decision will be made if and when those factors are known to us and the decision will be made as to whether or not Canada will actually enter into a contract to purchase the F-35,” Fantino said.

It appears, too, that the defence department is looking at a back-up plan if the F-35 purchase falls through.

“I’m waiting to hear back from the experts as to what options will ultimately be available to us. These things are in consideration. We’ll have to wait and see how things play out,” Fantino said.

The change in tone comes after Canada hosted a meeting at its embassy in Washington with the eight other partner nations involved in the F-35 program — the United States, Britain, Australia, Turkey, Denmark, Norway, Italy and the Netherlands.

NDP MP Matthew Kellway wondered whether Canadian officials got bad news at that meeting about the state of the project that is causing them to rethink their plans.

“It appears that Washington, the emergency meeting, was kind of a fig leaf on what appears to be a disastrous program. So I anticipate they’re looking for ways out of this thing now,” he told reporters.

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Liberal interim leader Bob Rae said that given the troubles with the F-35 program, it’s time to launch a new search for a replacement jet.

“They’ve known for some time that you can’t square the circle they’ve tried to square. . . . So clearly there needs to be a new competition.”

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