OTTAWA – The Harper government is on the defence after new numbers show the cost of the mission in Libya was seven times higher than Canadians were told.

In October, the defence minister claimed the price tag would be less than $50-million, but the actual cost was $347-million.

This comes just weeks after the auditor general released a report that showed the defence department withheld the life cycle cost of the F35 purchase by as much as $10-billion.

The opposition is outraged.

Liberal critic John MacKay says enough is enough with the fudging of the figures.

“I just can’t fathom why these guys can’t state the figures the way they’re supposed to be stated. This is not mathematics errors these are intentional misstatements,” said MacKay.

The NDP’s Paul Dewar believes someone needs to hand the Tories an abacus.

“Here we go again, not just with Peter MacKay but with this government. This minster has a problem just either figuring out his job or not being upfront and being truthful,” said Dewer.

Foreign Affairs minister John Baird handled the attacks in question period, saying the defence minister was being honest with the numbers he had in October.

“The numbers that he speaks of were actually tabled before parliament. Obviously the mission to Libya was extended on two occasions. It was much longer than was initially envisioned,” Baird explained.

The opposition does not buy the explanation, claiming the government uses two sets of books for defence, one they tell the public about and another with the true costs.