Senator Plett: Sure, so let’s buy some more airplanes that are not operational. We would also support that they not fly.

Leader, in 2015, the Prime Minister loudly proclaimed that he would not buy F-35 fighter aircraft. Here we are, seven years later, and the government has apparently changed its tune, though we still don’t have any confirmed purchase of any new aircraft. Instead, we bought 40-year-old F-18s from Australia, and we have been forced to extend Canada’s equally old CF-18s in service.

Leader, will you table a report in this chamber on what the total cost has been to buy and then bring these 18 used aircraft to operational condition? Will you also table a report on the additional costs involved in keeping our equally old CF-18s operational until new aircraft finally arrive?

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): My next question, Senator Gold, relates to an answer I received to an Order Paper question I posed some time ago related to the operational ability of the used fighter planes that the government purchased from Australia in 2018. The answer indicated that out of 18 used aircraft purchased, only 6 are operational. There are no opposition points to be made here. Each aircraft apparently requires a month of extensive inspections and modifications prior to being made operational.

All of this means that the used aircraft we have bought will not be in full operational service until at least the middle of next year, assuming that even that deadline can be met.

Leader, how does your government justify the fact that it argued that these aircraft were supposed to fill a gap and yet here we are, Senator Gold, four years later with only six operational aircraft from that purchase?