More reason why Liberals are destroying this country
Almighty1 @ Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:08 pm
Canadian Press
July 22, 2004
ADVERTISEMENT
OTTAWA -- The Liberal government is set to end a decade-long delay by announcing its choice for a military helicopter to replace the aging Sea Kings.
Newly installed Defence Minister Bill Graham will make the announcement Friday morning at the Shearwater air base near Halifax, spokeswoman Isabelle Savard said Thursday.
"He really wanted to do that kind of statement in direct contact with the troops in the first week of his appointment," she said.
Savard declined to provide further details.
The government affirmed in December it intended to buy 28 maritime helicopters, designed for defence, surveillance, search-and-rescue missions and disaster aid.
The choice is between two options: the Sikorsky S-92 built by U.S.-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., and the Cormorant by EH Industries of England.
The latter is essentially the same craft Canada contracted to buy in 1992 - before the newly elected Liberals cancelled the deal as a "Cadillac" expenditure the country could ill afford.
The winning bidder will replace the obsolescent Sea Kings, the first of which was delivered to Canada's air force in 1963 when Lester Pearson was prime minister.
The ancient helicopters - which are older than the crews who fly them - now require about 30 hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time and have been involved in a number of crashes. Seven crew members have died in various Sea King crashes between 1967 and 1994.
The winning bid announcement marks the first major decision of Prime Minister Paul Martin's government, less than a month after he won his first electoral mandate.
As such, it provides a curious bookend in the politically fraught helicopter saga.
Martin's predecessor, Jean Chretien, cancelled a $5.8-billion contract to buy 50 EH-101 military helicopters as his first act in office back in 1993.
The cancellation cost taxpayers $500 million in penalties and dogged Chretien politically for years.
Critics accused the Liberals of repeatedly doctoring the tender specifications, either to avoid making a decision or to ensure they wouldn't have to buy the same helicopter that Chretien had so dismissively attacked in Opposition.
In 1998, the Liberals awarded a $790-million contract for 15 search-and-rescue helicopters from EH Industries for its Cormorant, a downmarket version of the EH-101.
But the balance of the order for maritime patrol choppers went into a Byzantine tender process that at one point divided the air frame and avionics into separate bids.
The call for tender finally went out last December, just days after Chretien left office.
It will still take at least four years before the first of the new fleet will be flying over the perilous North Atlantic and seven years before the last of Sea Kings are decommissioned.
ThePolitician @ Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:12 pm
Avro Avro:
Whats your point?
That'll get the post count up quickly.
hwacker @ Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:21 pm
ThePolitician ThePolitician:
Avro Avro:
Whats your point?
That'll get the post count up quickly.
He has to, the last couple weeks he couldn't open his trap cause his Liberals have been getting the boots from the RCMP and the NDP
797 @ Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:13 pm
You guys may have seen this before but what the heck..
What Paul Martin really means to say.
Tricks @ Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:40 pm
what does that have to do with anything? I'm confused again
Arctic_Menace @ Tue Jan 10, 2006 9:58 pm
I don't know how many of you know this, but the 30 hours of maint. on the SK can easily be turned into 3 hours if you have 10 men working on it. THIS WAS TOLD TO ME BY AN AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE ENGINEER WHO WORKS ON SEAKINGS THAT ARE ON OUR NAVAL VESSELS......
I also find it odd how you are saying that this is somehow destroying Canada, when these helicopters are better than the Seakings, have better equipment, better range, and have been bought for the purpose of improving the state of the Canadian Forces......Yeah, getting new equipment for our military is destroying Canada alright..... 
ridenrain @ Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:00 pm
Do you look into this before you start?
$1:
At the informal lunch with Squadron staff, members of the Committee continued to explore the reasons why highly trained personnel were not re-enlisting. Responses: pilots cannot fly and airlift missions must be turned down because aircraft are not available. Mechanics and technicians have to wait for spare parts or do not have the equipment necessary to carry out maintenance quickly. Their frustration is compounded because they say the parts or equipment they need frequently could be purchased locally.
..lack of adequate Operations and Maintenance funds quickly became evident at nearly every base and unit visited.
..lack of adequate Operations and Maintenance funds quickly became evident at nearly every base and unit visited.
It's not just a simple time management issue.
Link
That's the 1994 senate's report on the military, with numerous examples of problems at most of the bases, and a whole section on the bottom reguarding Liberal white paper lies. Things have got to be bad when the senate wakes up.