Nova Scotia’s aerospace industry is worried that mounting pressure to curtail Canada’s participation in an international stealth fighter program could mean a more turbulent bottom line.

One company, Composites Atlantic Ltd., has plans to double its workforce over the next two years, thanks to Canada’s promised participation in the F-35 Lightning II program. The F-35, a stealth fighter aircraft with one engine and one seat, is poised to “become the backbone of U.S. air combat for the next generation,” according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

However, the global initiative requires each of the nine partners, including the U.S., Britain and Denmark, to fork over about 90% of the development costs and purchase approximately 3,100 F-35s over the next 25 years. Canada’s share: 65 planes.

In return, aerospace companies in the participating countries will benefit from lucrative contracts estimated to be worth $12 billion. The largest Canadian share will go to provinces such as Quebec, which has a substantive and well-established aerospace sector. Companies in other provinces, such as Nova Scotia, will also benefit. Many of these will be smaller firms whose future could be secure if Canada’s commitment to the F-35 program holds steady.

But critics of the program are concerned about the outlay of cash required from the Canadian government. The furor was sparked when parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page recently called for more detailed information on the cost of the fighter jets. He contends the price tag will hit $22 billion over the next 20 years. But the federal government counters that Page’s estimate is way off and that the cost will be roughly $14 billion.

The debate has taken on more urgency with the prospect of a federal election hovering overhead. The Liberals have now promised to axe the F-35 deal and hold an open competition for a new fighter plane. The Bloc Québécois, originally supporters of the program, which could prove particularly lucrative to Quebec, has done an about-face. Critics even have a new name for the initiative: the flying credit card.

To date, more than 85 companies across Canada have identified opportunities under the Joint Strike Fighter program; 60 have already signed contracts. (The main one is Lockheed Martin.) These numbers should rise by the time the initiative is fully operational, four years from now.

In Nova Scotia, the aerospace sector generates an estimated $600 million in revenue each year. Many of the firms involved, like Composites Atlantic, are significant contributors to the local economy. For example, Lunenburg, N.S.-based Composites Atlantic, established in 1987, currently has more than 400 employees working in its new 12,100-square-metre manufacturing plant and its 2,800-square-metre engineering and project-management complex.

Nova Scotia’s previous Progressive Conservative government had designated the defence and aerospace sector as a strategic growth area. And the current New Democratic Party government has just announced a capital-incentive program targeted at this and certain other sectors.

In the meantime, aerospace industry insiders are hoping the uproar over the F-35 program is just a blip on the radar. IE