OTTAWA – The government’s handling of the fighter jet program has broken trust with Canadians – and a simple “reset” on the process is not enough to get over that, Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page said.

“Trust is broken. I don’t think you get, in terms of a reset, that trust back until you have that debate in front of Parliament,” Page said during an appearance on the Global News program The West Block with Tom Clark.

“From my view, the (F-35) process that we had up to date, certainly our experience in 2010-11, was a complete failure, and, I think, a lack of leadership both politically and I think by public servants as well.”

What’s needed is an open debate in Parliament on Canada’s fighter jet requirements, the options available and the costs associated with each, as well as the potential industrial benefits the various choices offer to Canada, he said.

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Page’s comments come less than a week after the government released a report from accounting firm KPMG that said the F-35s would cost about $45 billion over a 42-year lifespan. When the report was released, the government promised full analysis of options before committing to purchase any jet.

The government has argued that the higher financial figure in the KPMG is mostly due to the longer time-frame used to assess that life cycle. Government figures from 2010 pegged the cost at about $25 billion over 20 years.

Nonetheless, Page said Canadians and Parliament were misled in the way the government presented information in the past.

“There were numbers that existed at DND (Department of National Defence) that were much higher than what was presented to Parliament,” Page said. “Canadians saw the lower set of numbers … So in that sense, they were misled.”

Page praised the government’s recent reports on the F-35 program and how it will go about replacing the aging fleet of CF-18s, but asked why it took so long to produce this kind of information.

“Why didn’t we have that report two years ago?” he asked. “My sense is that report existed two years ago (or) something very similar.”

Chris Alexander, parliamentary secretary to Defence Minister Peter MacKay, responded later in the show.

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“It’s a bit rich to being saying there’s a total failure of leadership for a project where no money has been spent,” he said.

He said Page’s comments about the public being misled amounted to “rhetoric” that would be more typical coming from the opposition parties.

Alexander repeated the government’s familiar lines that the information released previously relating to purchasing of F-35s had been done in way that was standard, but on the advice of the auditor general earlier this year, the government decided to improve the quality of the information it releases.

Page said there are lessons to be learned from the F-35 process as the government moves forward with a $35-billion shipbuilding program

“Can we go down the same road with ships?” he asked. “Yes, if we’re not careful … There were some principles around transparency, scrutiny and debate, and I think if we don’t get those principles, then yeah, we can have problems with ships as well.”

Future of the Parliamentary Budget Office

The budget officer, who has had a notoriously hostile relationship with the Conservatives, expressed doubt that the work he has been doing for almost five years will continue after his mandate ends in March 2013.

His office will be facing what he called a “PBO cliff” when his term ends in three months.

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Page said he has yet to see any indication that the government has started the process of finding his replacement – a process that should take six months, he said.

Without anybody at the helm, Page said he’s unsure how the work at his office will continue.

“We do have big files that we’re working on,” he said. “I think there will need to be some kind of extension, if not for me, then for somebody in my office appointed indirectly.”

But he added: “I’ve got no sense right now that there’s any momentum to replace me come March 2013.”

Page is Canada’s first parliamentary budget officer, a result of an accountability law the Conservatives passed almost immediately after winning their minority in 2006.

But throughout his term, Page has faced considerable pushback from the Conservatives, who have tried many times to discredit and hinder his work.

Recently, he even turned to the Federal Court to help resolve the debate over his office’s mandate, as the tug-of-war with the Conservatives over details of billions of dollars in spending cuts continues.

And without any sign of a replacement coming, Page said he’s concerned.

“We’re worried about it a little bit in my office because of the importance of the work, and we need to get this work out,” he said.

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Page said “it’s a risk” the government might leave the position vacant and “like other risks, if they’re not effectively managed, there will be costs to it.”

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