{"id":292524,"date":"2025-11-19T05:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/292524\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T05:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:02:08","slug":"joly-says-canada-didnt-get-enough-industrial-benefits-out-of-f-35-procurement-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/292524\/","title":{"rendered":"Joly says Canada \u2018didn\u2019t get enough\u2019 industrial benefits out of F-35 procurement deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly speaks with reporters as she makes her way to a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on Tuesday.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Liberal<\/a> government believes Canada was short changed on industrial benefits out of its contract to purchase American-made F-35 stealth fighter jets, Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that we didn\u2019t get enough when it comes to the F-35,\u201d Joly told reporters on Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industrial benefits are not enough. There needs to be more jobs created out of the F-35 contract. That\u2019s clear to me and clear to this government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joly\u2019s comments come as the Swedish firm Saab considers whether to set up shop in Canada to build its Gripen fighter jets, dangling the prospect of adding 10,000 domestic jobs in Canada.<\/p>\n

The remarks landed during a week when Saab company brass were meeting with Canadian government officials in Ottawa as part of a business delegation accompanying Sweden\u2019s royal family on a state visit to Canada.<\/p>\n

Saab CEO confirms talks with Ottawa, Bombardier for Gripen fighter jet production<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked for comment, F-35 builder Lockheed Martin countered that it is creating economic industrial benefits within Canada \u2013 and warned that those benefits would diminish if Canada reduces the size of its order.<\/p>\n

The company said in a media statement it expects Canada\u2019s plan to procure 88 F-35 aircraft will produce upward of $15.5 billion in industrial value over the course of five decades, from 2007 to 2058.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The figures) have potential to grow as Canada further defines sovereign sustainment requirements,\u201d said Chauncey McIntosh, F-35 vice president and general manager at Lockheed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomic benefits are commensurate with a country\u2019s program of record, and they will shrink if Canada ultimately purchases fewer than 88 aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are about 30 active Canadian suppliers involved in the F-35 program, the firm said.<\/p>\n

The federal government has committed to buying the first 16 F-35A jets out of a planned purchase of 88 to replace Canada\u2019s aging fleet of CF\u201118 Hornets.<\/p>\n

The government launched a review of the rest of the procurement project in the spring, after U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> launched a trade war <\/a>with Canada.<\/p>\n

Saab\u2019s CEO Micael Johansson has said Ukraine\u2019s hunger for its Gripen fighter jets would double the company\u2019s production requirements, forcing it to expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe or \u2013 possibly \u2013 in Canada. <\/p>\n

Opinion: A Canadian-made Swedish fighter jet may kick-start a domestic defence aerospace industry. But at what cost?<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukraine is seeking to build up its air force with modern jets, including some 100 Rafale fighters from France and more than 100 Gripens from Saab.<\/p>\n

Joly said Ottawa will have to kick the tires on the new offer by the Swedish defence company \u2013 but it\u2019s speaking the right language<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really interested in seeing what can be done because there was an unsolicited bid that came up,\u201d she said. \u201cTen thousand jobs is indeed a very interesting offer. So we have to look at what our military capabilities need, and at the same time, what are the number of jobs created across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saab also said recently it\u2019s looking to build its Global Eye surveillance aircraft entirely within Canada, a development that could bring 3,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

Joly said last month the federal government has not ruled out purchasing a mixed fighter fleet. She said one option for Ottawa is to move forward with a small fleet of F-35s while also acquiring a separate fleet of Gripens.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the F-35 have warned that building up a mixed fleet of aircraft could be an expensive and complicated proposition, and that the stealth jets are the most advanced fighter available.<\/p>\n

Tom Lawson, former chief of the defence staff, told The Canadian Press that \u201cnothing comes close\u201d to the F-35 as a modern fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n

Opinion: The idea of a mixed fleet of Canadian fighter jets should not take flight<\/a><\/p>\n

He said any other choice would be \u201cso inferior that to force the air force to get them and fly them for the future relegates them to decades of futility in any operations they might be asked to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Joly also said in French on Tuesday that Ukraine\u2019s efforts to build a fleet from various suppliers demonstrates that a mixed fleet is \u201cpossible\u201d \u2013 even during a war.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the Saab aircraft \u2013 such as Wesley Wark, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation \u2013 argue the Canadian manufacturing contributions to the F-35 are relatively small compared to those from other countries, and that the Gripen jets would be the ideal choice to fly over the Arctic.<\/p>\n

A 2025 report by the anti-armament group Project Ploughshares, a Canadian non-governmental organization, states that the U.S. gains the lion\u2019s share of the F-35\u2019s overall production subcontracts \u2013 nearly 70 per cent.<\/p>\n

Cabinet\u2019s review of the F-35 procurement continues, even though Defence Minister David McGuinty said months ago that Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> would render a decision by the end of summer.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr told the House of Commons defence committee that an F-35 review report produced by the Department of National Defence was sent to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office and Carney has likely opened it.<\/p>\n

A PMO spokesperson would not comment on whether Carney has finished reviewing the report, adding only that the review is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly speaks with reporters as she makes her way to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-292524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}