The Liberals want parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page to examine the Conservative government's recent decision to buy 65 stealth fighter jets without going through a competitive bidding process.
"It defies logic," Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said Wednesday of the sole-sourced contract with Lockheed Martin that could run up to $16-billion.
"We believe very strongly that for Canada - what other countries may do is their own business - but for Canada the competitive process is the best way to go," Mr. Goodale told a news conference.
"And we note that some other countries at least are pursuing that approach."
The Conservatives settled on the non-competitive process because of what the choice of fighter means for Canada's place as a U.S. ally, rather than for cost, cabinet documents obtained last month by The Globe and Mail indicate.
The F-35s are the product of the Joint Strike Fighter program launched in the 1990s by the United States and eight other nations, including Canada; the Liberal government of the day signed on to the development program, but didn't commit to buying the planes. Canada's CF-18 fighters will be retired between 2017 and 2020.
The Liberals now say too many sole-sourced contracts have been handed out since the Conservatives took power in 2006.
In his letter to Mr. Page, Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal defence critic, pointed out that Auditor-General Sheila Fraser is currently examining the decision to purchase CH-47 Chinook helicopters from Boeing without undergoing a rigorous and open competition. Ms. Fraser is expected to report on that specific contract in the fall.
In addition, Mr. Dosanhj said, Canada's C-17 Globemaster military transports were purchased from Boeing without allowing Airbus to submit a bid explaining how its competitor plane could meet Canada's defence requirements.
And in 2006, it was announced that the C-130J Hercules aircraft would be purchased from Lockheed-Martin without a call for competitive bids.
"Accordingly," Mr. Dosanjh said in his letter to Mr. Page, "I am writing to ask that you undertake a study comparing recent sole-sourced procurement projects in Canada and similar procurements in some of our allied countries."
He wants Mr. Page to do a comparative analysis of the costs and benefits that different countries have experienced when acquiring the same piece of military equipment, where one country engaged in a competitive bidding process and the other country opted to make the purchase through a sole-sourced contract.
"I feel that this kind of comparative analysis would be invaluable to Canadian legislators who are tasked with approving the expenditure of tax dollars in order to make major defence equipment acquisitions," Mr. Dosanjh said.
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Update Mr. Page told The Globe that the Liberal request would require a significant and complicated analysis.
His office will look at the request from differing vantage points including the mandate, the analysis, and the information that is available to prepare terms of reference for the Mr. Dosanjh before proceeding.
The investigation would be complicated by the debate around whether or not Treasury Board policies regarding procurement were followed, Mr. Page said in an e-mail.
"Whether-or-not policy is followed (an important first step) is likely essential to set up the framework for financial analysis to calculate a potential fiscal impact (the likely second step)," he said.
And, he added, it may require an audit-type assessment of the contracting process which is outside the mandate and abilities of the Parliamentary Budget Office.