Canada Faces Initial Funding Decision on $40Bn Frigate Program

OTTAWA --- The federal cabinet will soon be asked to make an initial down payment on the navy's frigate replacement program, which could total $104 billion if lifetime maintenance and operating costs are included, the Canadian Press has learned.

It will be asked not only to approve requirements for the new warships and cost tradeoffs, but also first-stage funding, which will allow defence planners to get the ball rolling.

But getting a revised cost estimate before the Liberal government has proven to be a painful exercise and budget planners at National Defence and the Finance Department engaged in a tug-of-war over projections ahead of Tuesday's federal budget, say several defence and government sources.

The sources, who cannot be named because of the sensitivity of the discussions, say Finance Minister Bill Morneau's office has been anxious for military planners to produce numbers on the Canadian Surface Combatant program for the last couple of months.

But defence officials have been reluctant to be pegged down because of the complex variables and that means they're only able to project numbers into the future with "about 80 per cent certainty," said one source with knowledge of the discussions.

Since the political fiasco over cost estimates for the F-35 jet fighters a few years ago, there's a desire to get the numbers as close to 100 per cent as possible, said the source. (end of excerpt)

Click here for the full story, on the Chronicle-Herald website.

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