Replacing the Royal Canadian Air Force's aging CF-18 fighter jets is a big-ticket defence spending project.
The cost of the Liberal government’s nearly seven-year-old marquee defence plan has jumped by over $50 billion — mostly due to anticipated work on modernizing continental defence and delays in projects that should be underway — the federal budget watchdog said Wednesday.The PBO says the cost of the defence policy is rising in part due to delays in purchasing new equipment, such as fighter jets to replace Canada's aging CF-18s.
When the federal government initially laid out its plan, it did not include the projected cost of modernizing NORAD. In 2023, then-Defence Minister Anita Anand announced that Canada would invest over $38 billion in improving aerospace and maritime defence alongside the United States. The report notes that since 2017, the government has not spent roughly $12 billion earmarked for equipment purchases — projects that are now pushed off into the future.
One aspect not addressed in the PBO report is the fact that the Liberal government is in the process of revising the defence policy in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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