On second thought?

The planning and priorities committee of the cabinet is presently meeting on Parliament Hill, apparently to decide the future of the military’s jet fighter procurement.

A little more than two years ago, on November 23, 2010, the Conservatives joined with the Bloc Quebecois to reject the following motion from the Liberals.

That, in the opinion of the House, the government’s decision to purchase the F-35 stealth fighter jets without holding an open competition will cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars at a time of unprecedented deficits and will create fewer jobs in the Canadian aerospace industry than would be guaranteed through an open competition and therefore the House calls on the government to immediately cancel their plan to spend $16 billion through an untendered, uncompetitive process while there is still no penalty to do so and instead commit to holding an open competition to replace the CF-18s based on clear and publicly disclosed foreign and defence policy requirements.

Tony Clement’s response for the government is here. Rona Ambrose’s response is here. Laurie Hawn’s formal response starts here.