NDP press conference underlines need to handle both defence and social policies without conflating them
The federal government must be able to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time — to do two things at once. It must meet national defence needs and ensure adequate housing in the Arctic.
That’s why it’s risky for the NDP to frame the purchase of new military airplanes as a false choice between buying F-35 fighter jets and addressing the housing, food and health crises in the North.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout, the NDP’s defence critic, and interim party Leader Don Davies called on the Liberal government to cancel plans to buy the American-made aircraft Wednesday during a Parliament Hill press conference.
Canada should pick Swedish company Saab’s Gripen fighters because they’re cheaper, would create manufacturing jobs in Canada, and wouldn’t come with messy ties to the United States, Idlout and Davies said.
Buying American planes would leave Canada at the mercy of U.S. President Donald Trump’s whims, Davies warned.
As well, he said, Trump could withhold spare parts or software upgrades for the jets if Canada doesn’t “knuckle under” to future American policy demands.
Canada has already committed to buying 16 Lockheed Martin F-35 jets, with an option to buy 72 more.
But Davies didn’t mention that the first of Canada’s F-35s isn’t scheduled to be delivered until 2028 — by which time the sun will be setting on Trump’s presidency.
Canada-U.S. relations are at a low point now. But hopefully, this too shall pass.
Calling the Saab jets the kind of “more cost-effective approaches” the government needs to take, Idlout said choosing them would create room in the federal budget for other things.
The less money Ottawa spends on jets, the more money it has for housing, to help people get food, or for health care in the North, Idlout said.
However, neither Idlout nor Davies actually mentioned how much it would cost to buy either the F-35 or the Gripen aircraft.
Leave it to the NDP to lecture the government about buying one thing instead of another without actually mentioning the cost of either.
The Liberal government is now cutting 40,000 federal public service jobs. But the NDP doesn’t see that as a cost-effective approach that could free up money for housing, food or health care.
Cutting those jobs now “is the wrong way to go,” Davies said.
It might be true that buying the Saab jets will be less expensive than the F-35s, especially once the costs of maintaining them over 45 years is factored in. But the NDP’s argument would have been a lot stronger if Davies and Idlout had brought a dollar figure for both fighter jet programs to their press conference.
Some politicians, especially in the North, tend to conflate Arctic security, nation-building, housing and other infrastructure projects.
But it’s important to view defence spending on things like fighter jets as separate and distinct from social spending on housing and food.
In the past year, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has aggressively pursued the building of big projects quickly to — in Carney’s words — “supercharge” the economy, especially in response to the Trump-induced transformation of the Canada-U.S. relationship.
The need to replace the Air Force’s fighter jets is, as Idlout said, “urgent” but the need will eventually be addressed. The need for the government to address housing, food and health care will be an ongoing need.
The federal government needs to address both of them at the same time and with the appropriate measures.