A rchive Date
[ 20-06-2004 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
|
[Liberal spin can't take off
By SEAN DURKAN
Ottawa Bureau
August 20, 2000
Two projects were launched last Thursday by Defence Minister Art Eggleton. The first involves finding a maritime military helicopter to replace the aging rust-bucket Sea Kings. The second involves trying to convince us that his government was right to cancel the former Tory government's helicopter contract in 1993 and that the taxpayer and armed forces will benefit in the long run.
The first is a long-overdue move that deserves praise of the "better-late-than-never" variety. The second is a blatant piece of political perfidy that deserves to be exposed.
The media collectively fell down on the job back in 1993 when the Tories announced their $5.7-billion plan to buy 50 new EH-101 helicopters from the British-Italian consortium Westland Augusta.
It wasn't entirely our fault - the Tories did a lousy job of explaining the contract, and arrogantly sprang it on us at a time when the deficit was at a historic high and the party's popularity was at a historic low. By the time we did look at the contract, the fall election of 1993 was almost over, Jean Chretien had promised to tear up the contract, and unlike his promise to scrap the GST, this was one pledge he intended to keep. Cancelling the deal was his first act as PM.
With the cold war over, who cared about the armed forces? The public didn't appear to, and the Liberals certainly didn't. But it wasn't that simple.
Six months later, two crew members died and two more were seriously hurt when their Sea King burst into flames. It emerged that, at the ripe old age of 30 years, the helicopters were falling apart and required 30 hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time. (Vice Admiral Doug Maddison, chief of Maritime Staff, said last week the figure is now closer to 40 hours.)
Meanwhile, the demands being placed on the helicopter fleet, through expanding peacekeeping operations, was increasing.
Suddenly the Tory contract did not look so bad. It would have been spread over 13 years, the helicopters would have been state of the art, and much of the technology would have been given to Canadian companies to develop. And the choppers would be coming on stream next year.
Thanks to the Liberals' delay, the first replacement for the Sea Kings won't be on the street until 2005. Eggleton crowed last week that the Liberals will end up saving taxpayers $1.5 billion over the initial $5.7-billion cost of the Tory contract.
The 15 (EH-101) Cormorants already ordered to replace our ancient Labrador search and rescue choppers and the 28 military maritime helicopters the government will eventually order when the bidding process is complete will cost $3.7 billion in total. Even with the $500 million we paid for nothing when the original deal was revoked, that adds up to only $4.3 billion, Eggs insisted.
But this is only $500 million less than the revised Tory contract of $4.8 billion. And this saving is only being obtained by going for the cheapest chopper available for the job, not the one of best value.
And Eggs' figure does not include the money the government has lost over the past seven years from taxes on all those high-paying jobs the EH-101 contract would have generated, and all the future revenues it would have received from the helicopter industry the project would have spawned in Canada in the 21st Century.
Nor does it include maintenance costs for the new helicopters, or the cost of keeping Sea Kings flying for an extra five years, or the cost in terms of the risk to the men and women who will be in them.
Eggs and his military spinners told us last week that whatever new chopper the government goes for, it will be more suited to modern needs, without explaining what it is they will do that the EH-101 wouldn't have done, or could not have been adapted to do.
The Liberals have waited seven years to even start looking to replace the Sea King. It will be next year before it asks for tenders, and late next year or early 2002 - well after the next election - before it awards the contract.
The Liberals were guilty of cheap politics when they scrapped the EH-101 contract, they have been guilty of cheap politics in waiting seven years to even start looking for a Sea King replacement, and they continue to be guilty of cheap politics.
Sean can be e-mailed at sean.durkan@tor.sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|