McGuinty not ruling out fighter jet purchases from several companies with F-35 decision still pending

National Defence Minister David McGuinty remains optimistic that the budget will pass, which would include increased military spending.

Defence Minister David McGuinty says Canada isn’t ruling out diversifying its fighter-jet purchases from more than one company in order to fulfil capability requirements.

“We’re grateful for any forthcoming offer that comes forward,” McGuinty told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday. “If anybody walks into Canada tomorrow from a sovereign wealth fund or with a joint venture in mind or is looking to set up a company in Canada to create 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,000 jobs, game on.”

Earlier this week, the president and CEO of the Swedish manufacturing company Saab told CTV News’ Genevieve Beauchemin in an interview that he has talked to Ottawa about making Gripen fighter jets on Canadian soil.

• 10,000 new jobs could soon come to Canada, Swedish manufacturer says

He says companies including Bombardier and CAE, which are both headquartered in Montreal, as well as Nova Scotia-based IMP Aerospace and Defence, could be part of a deal.

“If Canada wants to create sovereign capabilities and to do their own upgrades, to build parts of it, to do final assembly and test, we are prepared to do that,” Johansson told Beauchemin at the company’s headquarters in Stockholm. “We could do a technology transfer to Canada and support that build up.”

McGuinty said Canada plans to build “a defence industrial sector here, which is second to none,” and that an agreement with Saab would be in line with that.

Later this week, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia will be coming to Canada for a state visit with stops in Ottawa and Montreal. They will be joined by a large political and economic delegation, which includes Saab president and CEO Micael Johansson.

Canada’s fraught purchase of several dozen F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. company Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, is still under review.

Following years of delays, Canada and the United States inked a deal in 2023 for Canada to purchase 88 American-made F-35 fighter jets. Sixteen planes are currently in production.

Amid rising tensions with the United States, however, the federal government said in the spring that it was reviewing the deal and signalled an end-of-summer deadline to make a decision.

Still no timeline to conclude F-35 review

Speaking to Kapelos in an interview on CTV Question Period last month, Canada’s Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr said there was no new timeline to conclude the purchase review, and that the prime minister will decide “when he’s ready.”

• CTV QP: ‘The issue is how we spend the money’: Stephen Fuhr

And, asked by Kapelos when the government will conclude its review, McGuinty also wouldn’t directly say.

“The F-35 review continues,” McGuinty said. “It will continue until it’s brought to cabinet.”

“The prime minister, of course, is engaged, but it will continue,” he added. “It’s no secret we’re looking at industrial benefits. We’re looking at other parts and other features of the F-35 acquisition.”

“But we’re looking at this with the intensity and the detail with which we have to look at it to be able to make sure we make the right decision,” he also said.

When pressed on why the review hasn’t yet been concluded — with the previous defence minister saying it would be done by end of summer and factoring that the U.S. ambassador to Canada has identified the issue as an irritant in trade negotiations — McGuinty insisted on the importance of getting the review right.

“I can’t comment on the American ambassador’s position about this being an irritant,” he said. “I don’t see it as such.”

McGuinty added there are “many moving parts,” pointing to other areas of cooperation with the U.S. on defence, namely Canada’s 2022 commitment to invest in modernizing Norad, the bilateral defence alliance between Canada and the United States.

“The government is going to take the time it needs to do the responsible thing and make the responsible decision,” he said. “This is not precluding us, actually, from moving forward with all kinds of procurement.”

McGuinty in his interview also discussed Monday’s upcoming confidence vote on the Liberals’ highly anticipated budget — in which one of the biggest spending line items is defence — saying he’s hopeful it will pass.

You can watch Defence Minister David McGuinty’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.

With files from CTV News’ Genevieve Beauchemin