Mark Carney’s militarism is extreme. In the latest example, his government looks set to purchase more than twice as many fighter jets as Stephen Harper planned to.
On Friday CBC reported that Ottawa is considering purchasing over 140 new fighter jets. In what could rival the surface combatant purchase as the largest ever military procurement, the air force would get between 72 and 88 F-35s from US based Lockheed Martin and as many as 72 Gripens from Swedish company Saab.
Under Stephen Harper the plan was to purchase 65 F-35s. During Justin Trudeau’s time in office that number was bumped up to 88. A few months ago, reports started circulating that the Carney government was considering as many as 125 fight jets mixed between the F-35 and Gripen. Now government and industry officials are discussing 70 or more of each warplane. 140 new fighters would be more than double the 65 advanced warplanes Conservative Prime Minister Harper said Canada ‘needed’.
The cost is going to be astronomical. According to a two-year-old Parliamentary Budget Office assessment, the full lifecycle cost of purchasing 88 F-35s would be $74 billion. While Gripens are cheaper than F-35s, the lifecycle cost of purchasing 72 jets from Saab could easily top $50 billion.
These public resources could be used to house half a million or more people. $100 billion would cover the cost of land, development fees and constructing 200,000 units of social housing, which would provide low-cost lodgings to more than 1 percent of all Canadians.
Most countries don’t have fighter jets, let alone cutting-edge warplanes. Ireland hasn’t had fighter jets for two decades. Nor has Canada’s Five Eyes partner New Zealand while free trade partner Mexico doesn’t have operational fighter jets (and twenty countries don’t have militaries).
The fighter jet purchase has little to do with defence. They are being purchased to enhance the Canadian military’s capacity to kill alongside the most violent nation the world has ever seen.
Since the early 1990s the Royal Canadian Airforce has conducted 1,600 offensive bombing missions in US-led wars. In 1991 a dozen Canadian fighter jets participated in the bombing of Iraq. CF-18 Hornets joined US and British ships in destroying most of Iraq’s hundred plus naval vessels in what was dubbed the “Bubiyan Turkey Shoot.” Coalition bombing destroyed much of Iraq’s civilian infrastructure including electricity production, sewage treatment plants, telecommunications equipment, etc. Twenty thousand Iraqi troops and thousands of civilians were killed. At the end of that decade Canadian fighter jets bombed Serbia for 78 days. In the last stage of the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, 18 Canadian fighter jets participated in NATO’s 78-day bombing of Serbia in the spring of 1999. Hundreds died during NATO’s bombing and hundreds of thousands were displaced in a war that contravened international law.
In 2011 seven CF-18 fighter jets participated in the war on Libya and a Canadian general oversaw the entire NATO operation, which dropped thousands of bombs in a bid to secure regime change in the oil-rich nation. The assault unleashed 15 years of instability and violence in Libya as well as deteriorating social and economic indicators.
The number of fighter jets Canada looks set to purchase is growing for a series of reasons. From submarines to HIMARS, surface combatants to drones, Carney is increasing a military procurement that was already growing.
In his only significant move to lessen Canada’s deep dependence on the US military, Carney announced a year ago that he was reevaluating the contract to purchase 88 F-35s (16 had already been purchased). The pause was made in light of reports that Washington, led by an annexationist US president, would effectively have a “kill switch” for the F-35. But the air force wants the F-35 and the Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Carney to buy the Lockheed Martin jet.
At the same time there’s little pressure on Ottawa to constrain (or stop) the fighter jet purchase. The NDP has called to replace the F-35 with the Gripen but hasn’t identified the number of warplanes to purchase. Carney appears set to please Donald Trump and the Canadian military by purchasing nearly 70 F-35s. Sure, he will throw a bone to critics of the F-35 by hyping a plan to build the Gripens in Canada. (Saab has a plan to assemble aircraft in Ontario for both the Canadian and Ukrainian air forces.) From the standpoint of peace or funding Canadian social programs, we seem to be on a path towards the worst of both options.
The entire affair should be halted. Five years ago the No New Fighter Jets for Canada campaign published a public letter signed by Neil Young, Sarah Harmer, Michael Ondaatje and many other celebrities saying Canada shouldn’t “spend tens of billions of dollars on unnecessary, dangerous, climate destroying fighter jets.”
Their call should be heeded. Cancel the fighter jet procurement and build hundreds of thousands of units of social housing.
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