CH-47Fs: Does the Globe and Mail have a story?

From a piece by Daniel Leblanc:

...the planned signing of the contract for the new helicopters [sixteen CH-47Fs, not the six CH-47Ds we are buying this year for Afstan] has fallen months behind.

Documents released by the Department of National Defence show the government is struggling to fit the helicopter in its "prescribed" acquisition budget of $2-billion, stating the cost has jumped to $2.3-billion. The documents show that inflation costs, caused by the "slippage" in the signing of the contract, have already cost the government $80-million.

A briefing note from last September [2007--emphasis added] laid out two major sets of options for National Defence:

Adopt the status quo, meaning the government would agree to "absorb the overrun cost."

Or, change the equipment that Ottawa gets installed in the helicopters.

A DND spokeswoman refused to offer details on the plans to purchase the Chinook, stating it could only do so once the contract is signed.

"As the government is currently in negotiations with the company for the acquisition of the CH-47 model F Chinook, we are unable to provide the particular information requested," Krista Hannivan said...

But this is what the government said on April 7, 2008:

...The Government expects to award a contract for the medium-to-heavy lift helicopter in fall 2008 [emphasis added]...

Unless any of the documents Mr Leblanc has date from after April 7--and I see no reason to think they do--then any slippage in awarding the contract was in the time-frame envisioned back in 2007 and is quite irrelevant to the contract date mentioned in April 2008 . So the "has" in "has fallen months behind" is simply not accurate. Those pesky facts; more misleading reporting from our "National Newspaper".

Which is not to say that awarding the Chinook contract has proceeded expeditiously.