During his year-end interview with Global News national anchor Dawna Friesen, Prime Minister Stephen Harper got to talking about fighter jets.

Friesen asked Harper whether he wished there had been more transparency around the fighter jet procurement program “right from the beginning.” Here’s the transcript of their exchange from that point on.

Harper: Well I think we’ve been very clear about what the numbers are that we projected, which actually have been validated by the recent KPMG report. But what the Auditor General said in the spring was he looked at the process as it had gone to this point and let’s remember we’re very early in the process. We haven’t spent any money on acquiring the next generation of fighter jets, but he said that he thought that both the costs and the options analysis had not been as thorough as it should be. So, based on that, the government has reset those parts of the process and we’re going through that again. Harper: As I say, I think the cost numbers from the KPMG report look in fact, identical to what the government has budgeted but they’ll also do an options analysis. I think what happened here, I think it’s very easy to explain the process whether it’s right or wrong, is that you know, back in 1997, the previous government made a decision with an international…with its allies to be involved in an international consortium to actually develop the new fighter jet and to make sure that Canadian industry was part and parcel of the development of that airplane, as opposed to coming in after the fact and trying to get what we can an industrial and regional benefits. Friesen: So there would be Canadian jobs? Harper: There would be Canadian jobs, a much more profound position of Canada in the worldwide supply chain for this aircraft. I think because of that, an assumption was just made all along the way that of course, if we’re developing this plane, this will be the plane we’re purchasing. It’s not an unreasonable assumption, but I think what the Auditor General pointed out is because of that, National Defence had not done as thorough an analysis as it should on some aspects of this, both the costs and options and that’s what we’re now doing. And we will continue to do that. And we’ve been very clear; we’ve set up a multi-stage process. We set up some independent expert panels and we’ll go through this step by step to make sure we are making the right purchases. The CF-18, the current fighter jet fleet will start to reach the end of its life in the middle to end of this decade and we’ll make sure both that we have aircraft ready to go when we need that and also at the same time that Canada is involved in the development of next generation airplanes.

This is very similar in tone and accuracy to Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s blog/opinion piece from earlier this week. And, again, there are a few quick notes/things to remember while reading it.

The government was not clear about the numbers it projected. It was the opposite, in fact, and it took the auditor general to point out that National Defence’s figures – the same ones they gave to the Parliamentary Budget Office – were off by $10 billion in further lifecycle costs. Up to that point, the government maintained the total cost would be around $16 billion.

The government was also unclear on where Canada stood in relation to the project, overall. Canadians not just make “an assumption” that, because Canada was part of the Joint Strike Fighter program, we would get the F-35 in the end. That general understanding existed because the government told everyone that’s what would happen. Prior to the spring of 2012, when then-associate minister of defence Julian Fantino finally admitted as much in a committee meeting, the government maintained on a number of occasions (during the 2011 election campaign, particularly) that Canada had signed a “contract,” or that a “contract” existed. It did not.

Did Canadian industry benefit from Canada’s involvement in the JSF program? Yes, undoubtedly – to the tune of just over $400 million in total contracts, according to Industry Canada. But the ability for Canadian companies to bid on work for the JSF would have existed as long as Canada remained a part of the Memorandum of Understanding, and was not necessarily dependent on Canada buying a fleet of planes. While Canadian companies bid on work for the F-35, Canada was still allowed to hold any competition it desired to establish what plane would be best suited for it in the future. In fact, this is still the case.

The auditor general found more than the costs and options analysis “had not been thorough.” The AG found that proper due diligence had not been administered by either DND or Public Works. This included not releasing full lifecycle costs to the PBO for its work on costing the F-35 procurement, and — perhaps most baffling of all – the simple fact that Public Works didn’t even see the full statement of operational requirements that led DND to settle on the F-35 as the plane it wanted until at least a month after MacKay had announced Canada was set to buy 65 of the jets.

The full Global News interview airs Sunday.