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The government tells us all is well (see Public Works Minister Diane Finley’s letter to the editor in Saturday’s edition). Yet this government, notwithstanding its pro-military stance, has a history of bungling procurement projects. Multi-year efforts to procure new logistics trucks for the Army have gone nowhere, as the government has proven unable even to properly solicit bids. Replacements for the Sea King helicopters, needed decades ago, are not yet in service.The fiasco surrounding the F-35 purchase, intended to replace our aging CF-18 jets, is well-known.

As recently as October, the government was dismissing warnings by the Parliamentary Budget Officer that the $3.1 billion budgeted to procure six to eight Offshore Patrol Ships for the Navy wouldn’t be enough. “We are confident that we will build six Arctic offshore patrol ships,” Ms. Finley said in the House of Commons. “The numbers provided by the PBO are based on erroneous data, rough cost estimates of international vessels with varied capabilities, and they’re derived using inaccurate specifications.”

Canadians need a military that can safeguard our security at home and honour our obligations abroad

Yet earlier this month, when a contract was finally signed — the vessels, due years ago, will now enter service in 2021 at the earliest — the budget had grown by $400 million, while the number of ships had shrunk to as few as five.

What can account for this? We refer again to Ms. Finley’s letter on Saturday. She writes: “We are committed to creating jobs, growth and long-term prosperity for Canadians. That’s why we are so proud that our Shipbuilding Strategy will end the shipbuilding boom-and-bust cycle while creating an estimated 15,000 jobs and resulting in over $2 billion in annual economic benefit for 30 years.”

Notice anything missing from that statement? In all that list of the many things to which the government is “committed,” there is not a single reference to getting ships for the Navy. Jobs here, “economic benefit” there, but no new destroyers in sight.

Politics is politics. But Canadians need a military that can safeguard our security at home and honour our obligations abroad. The Tories talk a good game, but when it counts, they seem more interested in buying votes than buying ships.

National Post