CAITI called out Harper on the matter of "democracy" long before many others did:

CAITI advertisement from February 2007 published in the Hill Times entitled "Stephen Harper's insidious attack on Democracy". Click on above image to enlarge.

Lie. Conceal. Fabricate: Canada’s F-35s: Engines not included

Canada’s F-35s: Engines not included

Government will be required to provide powerplant for stealth fighters, documents show

By DAVID PUGLIESE, The Ottawa Citizen April 17, 2011 11:15 AM

The multi-million dollar F-35 stealth fighter that the Conservatives want to purchase comes with all the accoutrements of a high-tech aircraft — everything, that is, except an engine.

The government will be required to provide engines for the 65 planes to be delivered by U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin, according to newly released Defence Department documents.

The proposed F-35 purchase, estimated to cost between $14 billion and $29 billion depending on what figures are used, has been controversial. Opposition parties are calling for a review or cancellation of the program, while the Tories have made it a key part of their defence policy.

The DND documents, which outline answers to questions about the F-35, also note that the stealth fighter could be used in a secondary role for search-and-rescue.

The records, obtained through the Access to Information law by peace activist Tamara Lorincz, are from a series of meetings last fall when defence bureaucrats and military officers toured the country to promote the F-35 deal.

“Engines are provided as gov’t furnished equipment,” noted the documents.

The term “government furnished equipment” signifies that the engines are being provided separately by Canada.

It is unclear how much extra the engines will cost or whether there would be additional costs for installing the power plants into the fighters.

In an e-mail late Friday, DND stated that Canada is purchasing the least costly variant of the F-35.

But DND did not provide an explanation about why the government is required to provide the engines.

It also did not provide any details on the price tag of the engines or the cost to install them.

But the e-mail suggested the cost of the engines is included in the overall price.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has labelled the F-35 as a good deal for Canada and notes that the aircraft will cost around $75 million per plane.

The Conservatives say the entire purchase will cost around $14 billion but a report from Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page puts the number at $29 billion.

The Government Accountability Office, the U.S government’s equivalent of the auditor general, has also warned about serious ongoing problems with the aircraft and rising costs. Mike Sullivan, a senior official with the Government Accountability Office, estimates that the F-35 model that Canada is buying will cost between $110 to $115 million.

U.S. defence specialist Winslow Wheeler, who has also raised concerns about the F-35, has warned that the extra cost of an engine could boost the price of an aircraft for Canada to around $148 million.

“If Canada’s government can get an F-35 for the mid-70 million dollars per airplane, well they should sign a contract right now and get it delivered,” said Wheeler, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information in Washington. “Because I can promise you nobody on this earth will ever get a flying F-35 for $75 million per copy. It’s pure fantasy.”

But former chief of the defence staff, retired Gen. Paul Manson, a strong supporter of the F-35 and a former chairman of Lockheed Martin Canada, has challenged Wheeler’s viewpoints in a letter to the Citizen. According to Manson, the F-35 project is progressing well and the plane is the right one for Canada. He said Wheeler lacks credibility because he is associated with a “left-wing” organization in Washington.

Wheeler, who was asked to testify last year before a Commons committee, has spent the last 30 years working on defence issues for Republican and Democratic politicians. He was an analyst for nine years with the Government Accountability Office, working on studies concerning defence procurement and military aircraft.

The DND records highlight the F-35’s capabilities, pointing out that it will be easy to fly and the purchase will provide contracts for Canadian aerospace companies.

During the tour, the issue of whether the F-35 could contribute to search and rescue (SAR) missions also came up. “Fighter aircraft (are) not a primary SAR asset, but can play a secondary role — and would,” the documents state.

But Steve Staples, a vocal critic of the F-35 purchase, calls that claim ludicrous.

He said the billions of dollars earmarked for the fighter jets have helped delay other more important projects such as the air force’s much-delayed plan to buy fixed wing search and rescue planes.

“The concern here is that the F-35 eats everybody’s else’s lunch and there will be no money left,” said Staples, president of the Rideau Institute. “The search and rescue aircraft are a casualty, so instead we’ll get some supersonic stealth fighter trying to find hikers lost in the woods.”

According to the DND presentations from the documents, the first F-35 will be delivered to Canada in 2016. The final delivery will take place in 2022.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen



Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canada+Engines+included/4629251/story.html#ixzz1JnXawR9o

Jack Layton: Just who are you trying to fool?

From: NDP
To: canadasndp@ndp.ca
Sent: Sat, April 16, 2011 5:50:42 PM
Subject: New Democrats push for early release of Auditor General G8-G20 report

Thank you for your message outlining your desire to have the Auditor
General report on the G8/G20 meetings made public before Election Day.

I fully agree that Canadians have a right to know what is in the report
before May 2. We have already seen at least two leaks to the media of
details from draft versions. Therefore, we think that it is in the best
interests of all parties involved to clear the air, and only making the
full and final report public would accomplish this.

On April 12, I wrote to Auditor General Sheila Fraser and all Party
leaders proposing a solution to the current impasse. Regretfully, Ms.
Fraser remains entrenched in her position that the final report should
not be released until after the election, as per her April 13 reply to
me. For your interest, I have attached copies of these two letters.

Again, thank you for informing me of your interest to know the truth
about this serious matter.

All the best,


Jack Layton
Leader of Canada's New Democrats

Jack Layton: Just who are you trying to fool?

Failed motion to release AG report during election not 'respectful': NDP MP
By Tobi Cohen, Postmedia News April 13, 2011

A New Democrat is defending his decision not to support a motion that may have permitted the immediate and full release of the auditor general's report into G8 and G20 spending now at the centre of a brewing political controversy.

After a draft of the report — critical of the Harper government — was leaked on Monday, all parties began calling on Auditor General Sheila Fraser to release the final version.

Fraser rebuffed those requests, saying she could only do that after the May 2 election, when Parliament was sitting.

But it also came to light this week that members of a parliamentary committee anticipated this problem two days before the writ was dropped and sought to pass a motion that would allow the report to be released mid-election.

The Liberal motion, supported by the Bloc Quebecois, ultimately failed after the Conservatives — who now want it released because they say the final version isn't nearly as scathing as the draft — voted against it.

But so, too, did NDP MP David Christopherson.

Christopherson, who held the Ontario riding of Hamilton Centre, defended his position Monday just hours before the televised English-language debate, which will most certainly address the latest controversy.

"Shortly before this election, some MPs on the public accounts committee sought to suddenly change the rules so the auditor general would be obligated to release her next report in the middle of an election campaign. There was no notice given or time to study the implications," Christopherson said.

"Of course I realized there was some partisan advantage for me, and other MPs, if I allowed this to happen. But it was not in keeping with the democratic traditions of Parliament nor was it respectful of the Office of the Auditor," he added. "The hypocrisy of the move was too much."

While some have suggested the current controversy over the report may have been a non-issue had the motion passed — the report would then have been posted by the Speaker on the parliamentary website — NDP officials said it's not that easy.

Because the motion didn't have unanimous approval, it would have required a vote in the House of Commons. Since the government fell the next day on a non-confidence motion, they say that wouldn't have happened anyway.

tcohen@postmedia.com

Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/Failed+motion+release+report+during+election+respectful/4601992/story.html#ixzz1JkPWxDtE

Thank you for taking the time to write to Michael Ignatieff

Just received this in my email:

Thank you for taking the time to write to Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Opposition and Member of Parliament for Etobicoke-Lakeshore. With the dissolution of the 40th Parliament and the call of the 41st General Election this email account will not be monitored regularly and it cannot be used to communicate political messages during an election campaign.

If you have any question or comments for Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party of Canada please contact info@liberal.ca.

To which I responded:

From: Brent Fullard
To: info@liberal.ca
Sent: Thu, April 14, 2011 7:22:16 PM
Subject: Income Trusts

When are you going to expose Stephen Harper's lie about tax leakage that was at the heart of his income trust tax? A tax that caused the 75% of Canadians without pensions to lose an essential retirement income investment vehicle.

A tax that was imposed on income trusts held in RRSPs, but not income trusts held by pension funds like the Public Sector Pension fund that manages the retirement assets of Canada's civil servants and who exploited this unfair advantage when they acquired Thunder Energy Income Fund, and pay no taxes.

A tax that caused over 2 million Canadians to lose over $35 billion in the value of their hard earned retirement savings.

A tax that caused over $100 billion in Canadian businesses formed as income trusts to be taken over by foreigners, like the $5 billion takeover of Prime West Energy Income Trust by Abu Dhabi Energy or the takeover of TransAlta Power Income Trust by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing, to mention but two of the 45 similar takeovers that caused Canadian taxpayers to lose $1.2 billion in annual revenue, since there foreign investors have structured these acquisition in a manner that will see no taxes collected by Ottawa, whereas as public income trusts held by Canadians Ottawa was collecting $1.2 billion in taxes (on these 45 trusts alone)?

Token ethnic people required. Sorry for the short notice.

We, at the Etobicoke Centre riding, are trying to create a photo-op about all the multicultural groups that support Ted Opitz our local Conservative candidate and the Prime Minister. The opportunity is to have up to 20 people in national folklore costumes which represent their ethnic backgrounds. These people will sit in front row behind the PM – great TV photo op.

We are seeking representation from the Arab community. Do you have any cultural groups that would like to participate by having someone at the event in an ethnic costume? We are seeking one or two people from your community. Please let me know by Wednesday afternoon – 5:00 pm at the latest.

I apologize for the short notice.

Thanks again for your help!

Zeljko ‘Zed’ Zidaric

Ted Opitz Campaign Team

416.577.4000

Harper's new campaign vehicle

This would be so right for Stephen Harper.....American Motors.....Bubble car......Pacer, being the biggest dud to come out of Detroit next to the Edsel. What a symbolic gesture it would be for Stephen Harper to adopt this as his new campaign vehicle!

Only $2,500.00 on Kijiji. Maybe the Liberals would like to donate it as a gift to the Harper campaign?

Sheila Fraser: 11th hour hero

The Auditor General usurped the integrity of her own office when she refused to audit the Harper government's claims of tax leakage when she was called upon to do so by the CAITI, the Liberals, the Green Party, the Coalition of Energy Trusts and lots of average Canadians saying that it isn't the AG's role to question government policy.

Meanwhile this inaction on her part completely contradicts the role that the Auditor General defines for herself on her website that reads:

""Parliamentarians need objective and fact-based information about how well the government raises and spends funds. The Office of the Auditor General is an independent and reliable source of such information."

Except however in situations where Parliamentarians ask for the information (as the Liberal Members of the Finance Committee didm,, after my urging) and except for situations where the Auditor General is a total wimp.

What a pushover this lame AG is. An 11th hour hero.

Who was asking her to question government policy"? We just wanted her to confirm that Harper's claims of tax leakage were the bogus argument we already knew it to be. That's what an Auditor's role in life is.....to provide numbers, not excuses!

Sheila Fraser is big on excuses, short on numbers.

Sheila Fraser, the 11th hour hero/wimp.

Sheila Fraser told these Parliamentarians to get stuffed, as(evidently) she's as much a fan of blacked-out documents as Stephen Harper:

For Immediate Release February 29, 2008

Liberal Finance Committee Members call on Auditor General to Examine Government’s Claims of Income Trust Tax Leakage

OTTAWA – Liberal Members of the Standing Committee on Finance today called on the Auditor General to investigate the tax leakage claims that the government used as the basis for its October 31, 2006, decision to tax income trusts.

“I think that this government’s stonewalling has gone on long enough and it’s time that Canadians got to see that the Government simply made up its story that income trusts cause federal tax leakage,” said Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum.

“Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised to Canadians that he would never tax income trusts. Then he went back on his word, costing Canadians billions overnight and in the wake of his silence on the issue we feel that only the Auditor General can shine some light into this matter.”

All four Liberal Members of the Finance Committee signed a letter to Auditor General Sheila Fraser asking her to investigate the matter, particularly the government’s unproven allegations about income trusts causing tax leakage.

“This has clearly become much more than just another instance of the government not doing its homework before acting. It has become a full-blown scandal and cover-up,” said John McKay, Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Guildwood. “We have tried virtually every tool at our disposal to get the government to show us how they came to their conclusions about tax leakage and the Auditor General may be Canadians’ last resort.”

An Access to Information request asking for the Department of Finance’s assumptions, data and methodology resulted in the release of only 23 pages of documents that are almost entirely blacked out.

A direct request from the Finance Committee to see the data was met with two thick binders of superfluous information that did not contain the data or methodology originally requested.

A written question was placed on the Order Paper asking the government to recalculate its estimate of tax leakage using the 15 per cent federal corporate tax rate that will actually be in effect in 2012, the year after the income trust tax begins, as opposed to the 21 per cent tax rate that was in effect at the time of the announcement. The government’s response to the question indicated that that this would be a hypothetical calculation and therefore impossible to do.

“That’s not a hypothetical, that’s what the federal tax rate will be,” said Garth Turner, Member of Parliament for Halton. “If the government can’t manage to run the new 2012 corporate tax rate through their calculators then I have no reason to believe they ran the old one through their calculators in October of 2006.”

In 2006, Stephen Harper ran on a campaign commitment to never tax income trusts. The Conservative election platform characterized any attempt to impose such a tax as, “An attack on retirement savings.”

“That election commitment was obviously a falsehood. Unfortunately the voters who believed it and invested even more money in income trusts lost a significant portion of their nest eggs,” said Massimo Pacetti, Member of Parliament for MP for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel.

“Even today, 15 months after they broke their election promise, Members of Parliament still hear from the thousands of Canadians whose retirement plans were shattered by this deception. Liberal Members of Parliament continue to stand up for them.”
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