Hmm, safer Canadian streets, where criminals with 20 convictions are actually tucked away in jail instead of doing drive-bys. Where rapists and child molesters are not released early because of over crowding problems. Or are released after 1/3 their sentence. Where the prisons themselves are not falling down. Where prisoners actually have their own cells instead of bunking in the gym. No, the prisons thing has a lot going for it if one cares to scratch the surface.

On the Jets, Canada's MOE commits it to 4.875 Billion for 65 planes (75mx65). The government added a few billion for cost over runs and came to 8.9. These are purchase price costs. Not with 30 years of maintenance built in. Kevin Page's 30 B number not only includes maintenance for 30 years, it costs it out in 30 year dollars.
In other words 30 years from 2016, looking back we will have spent 30 Billion. Given costs of inflation, depreciation of the dollar, that would be in line with reasonable argument. But for all these arm-chair generals to pontificate and pass judgment on whether the government is telling the truth is just silly. Educate yourself before joining in the howling at the moon




 Certainly this program's costs are escalating. The original price was in the low 40 millions. However to bear down on this deal, in frank, legal terms the memorandum of understanding put the price of each plane at 75 million. Which equals a surprisingly low 4.875 Billion. The government allowed several extra billions for over runs to 8.9 B.

But this is the purchase price. It certainly doesn't presume to predict maintenance costs for 30 years! Do you buy 20 years of maintenance when you buy your car?
Of course not. Kevin Page's 30B estimate not only tries to make such a projection, but looks at it with 30 year dollars. In other words 30 years after delivery the total cost might be 30B. Well.... do the shakey math. Is that too hard to buy? It certainly doesn't reflect on our purchase costs. These planes fly at about 50,000.00 per hour. How many hours will we put on these planes in 30 years? How many theaters of war did we predict 30 years ago? Bosnia? Afghanistan? Iraq 1? Libya? How many hours have we flown in those engagements?

I would wish for 30 years of real peace. But a military cannot plan for that.




The R&D on this project is 350 Billion. Want that added to our national debt? That might do it.


Why does no one bother to do the math. What is 65 fighters times 75 million each? 4.8 Billion Dollars. The feds indicated they allotted 8.9 Billion last summer. The difference between the two totals is multiple billions. As frustrating as it is to have no-it-all posters on this board, its worse that this is nursed along by the CBC.


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Price of 65 planes at 75 million each equals 4.875 Billion
Released Costs including contingency: 8.9 Billion
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4.425 Billion difference.