Promises v. “Accomplishments”

Uh oh. It seems that the navy’s support ship project is running into money problems before the contracts have even been awarded, suggesting that the Stephen Harper government’s vote-getting “Canada First” defence plan may be underfunded from the get-go.

Hmmm. Sandy Crock said this was already “accomplished”… Go figure.

While it’s a good thing that the government is establishing a long-term spending plan that will aid in development of an organized national shipbuilding policy, it’s essential that the fiscal projections aren’t skewed to an artificially low level just for the sake minimizing the “sticker shock” of the expenditures involved. Perhaps the actual costs should have been properly determined through negotiations between the DoD and various contractors before Harper and his Defence minister went running around announcing all sorts of lavish promises of equipment they may not really be able to deliver on.