Due attention

The Cons may be doing their best to try to create a military purchasing process free of public scrutiny or accountability. But the NDP isn't letting them off the hook, demanding that the opaque procurement process be balanced by clear Parliamentary oversight:

The NDP says a parliamentary committee must be given the opportunity to investigate the Conservative government's plan to override controls on $8-billion in military spending and steer contracts to the West, Quebec and the Atlantic.

The federal government will choose where the contracts will be doled out by invoking a national-security exception on the purchase of military airplanes and helicopters.

New Democratic defence critic Dawn Black said the government should discuss its plans with Parliament to ensure that everything is above board. She said MPs must be able to grill the ministers of Defence and Industry on this topic in the fall, when the House of Commons returns from its summer break.

"The potential is there for favouritism, the potential is there for pork-barrelling, and hopefully . . . we can examine the government's rationale for this and look at where they are thinking of letting these contracts," Ms. Black, MP for the B.C. riding of New Westminster-Coquitlam, said of the planned purchases.

"It makes sense that there be some regional aspects to it, but it should be done in an open and accountable manner so that any questions that members of Parliament and the public have are seen to be answered."

Ms. Black made a specific reference to the outrage that surrounded the 1986 contract to maintain CF-18 fighter jets, which was initially destined for Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg and redirected to Canadair of Montreal by the Mulroney government. "I'm from the West, and we haven't forgotten that debacle here," Ms. Black said. "At a minimum, [these new purchases] should be put before the defence committee of the House."

It would be all the better if the Cons were willing to face the usual procurement process, which as noted before already includes a regional development component. But if they are indeed able to insulate the purchase from AIT scrutiny, then a thorough Parliamentary review is likely the next best means of ensuring that the purchase itself really is aimed toward national security rather than purely political gain.