April 27, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Emergencies are first handled by local authorities and municipal services such as firefighters, the police and medical professionals, but when first responders are overwhelmed, provinces and territories can request support from the federal government.
After the request is approved, the federal government's response is managed by Public Safety Canada, who may ask the Canadian Armed Forces for help by stepping in under Operation LENTUS, the Canadian Armed Forces response to natural disasters in Canada.
The same request process applies to the COVID-19 pandemic, only the CAF is responding under Operation LASER — the activation of Contingency Plan LASER “for the response to a pandemic of influenza-like disease.”
Operation LASER consists of four phases. Phase one is pandemic preparedness, involving mitigation planning and monitoring of potential worldwide pandemic threats.
Phase two, which began on March 2, is pandemic alert. This includes active monitoring of an evolving pandemic threat and implementing some restrictions.
Phase three is the CAF's response to the pandemic. This means the CAF is able to deploy when help is requested and approved from a province or territory.
Phase four is post-pandemic restoration, which is the resumption of CAF services and operations to normal levels. Phase one is also resumed.
Since March 13 the CAF has been at phase three after the Chief of the Defence Staff, Jonathan Vance, approved the CAF response to the pandemic.
Last month the federal government prepared 24,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces, a total of one quarter of their regular and reserve members, to deploy in the event that a province requested their support.
Since then, Quebec has requested the CAF's assistance. The province specified that it needed medical personnel to help nursing homes struggling with outbreaks of COVID-19 and staff shortages.
Quebec's request was approved by the federal government and CAF medical personnel have arrived at five nursing homes.
On April 22, Ontario also requested help from the federal government and the CAF for their long-term care nursing homes, which was approved the following day.
CAF medical officers must have completed a medical degree from an accredited university before applying to the Medical Officer Training Program (MOTP). Once completed and accepted into the MOTP, officers are trained within the military to ensure their performance follows under military policies and in environments abroad.
This includes the completion of the Basic Military Officer Qualification in Quebec before they can complete the Common Health Services course, which is provided by the Defence Learning Network. They also attend the Canadian Forces Health Services Training Center in Borden, Ontario, where they “are introduced to the organizational structure and history of the Canadian Forces Medical Service and the unique circumstances of practicing military medicine.”
Medical officers then can choose to either specialize their medical practice or acquire advanced training in several fields of medicine.
CAF members are also helping process materials for Personal Protective Equipment at Public Health Agency warehouses across Canada. In Northern Canada, they are prepared to assist remote communities to combat outbreaks.
The CAF has activated three Northern Saskatchewan Ranger Patrols, gathering firewood for residents during their winter season as the pandemic continues.
December 16, 2022 | Local, Aerospace
Les négociations entre le Canada, Lockheed Martin et le gouvernement des États-Unis concernant l’achat de 88 avions furtifs F-35 progressent. À un point tel que la ministre de la Défense nationale, Anita Anand, laisse entendre dans une entrevue à La Presse qu’elle pourra annoncer de bonnes nouvelles « bientôt ».
May 25, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
As governments around the world reassess national security, Ottawa could find it harder to delay plans for new ships, helicopters and fighter jets. Jeffrey F. Collins May 22, 2020 A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the first signs of impact on Canada's defence procurement plans are showing. The government has been following an ambitious multi-decade blueprint, starting in 2010, to kick-start the domestic shipbuilding sector, but some yards have had to scale back their workforces under public health orders. What this means for the National Shipbuilding Strategy and its more than $85 billion (by my calculations) in ongoing and planned construction of large ships is as yet unclear. The $19-billion Future Fighter Capability project, designed to replace the four-decade-old CF-18 fighter with 88 new jets, could also be affected. Government officials were adamant until early May that the June submission deadline for bids remained unchanged — before granting a 30-day extension. But with industry and public sector workers largely stuck at home, it is difficult to see how even the new July deadline can be met. In earlier times of economic strain, Ottawa found defence spending an easy target for cuts. This time could be different, as governments around the world reassess what national security means and how best to achieve it. Heading into 2020, things were still looking up for the capital spending plans of the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). The Trudeau government's 2017 Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE) defence policy had allocated $108 billion in capital expenditures over a 20-year timeframe, 2017-37. Then came the pandemic. There were more than a million job losses in March alone, and as of early May, the Parliamentary Budget Office was predicting a $1-trillion debt by 2021. Given the rapid drop in both domestic and global consumer demand, the price collapse in the country's key commodity, oil, and the accompanying decline in the Canadian dollar, the country is now in a recession for an unknown period. If past is prologue and the virus persists without a vaccine for the foreseeable future, the likelihood of the government delaying or cancelling projects or trimming its orders for ships and planes is growing. When faced with economic pains in the past, federal governments scaled back procurement plans. The staggering debt and deficit in the late 1980s and 1990s led the Brian Mulroney government to drop its ambitious bid to acquire up to a dozen nuclear submarines in 1989, a mere two years after announcing the project in the 1987 defence White Paper. In 1993 the Jean Chrétien government infamously scrapped the contract to replace the 1960s-vintage Sea King helicopter (at a cost of $478 million in penalties). The following year's defence White Paper outlined $15 billion in delays, reductions and cancellations to the DND's procurement budget; this was in addition to large-scale base closures and 20 percent reductions in both CAF regular force personnel and the overall defence budget. The ostensibly pro-military Stephen Harper Conservatives announced 20-year funding plans, as ambitious as the SSE, in the 2008 Canada First Defence Strategy but deviated from them in the aftermath of the 2008-09 global recession. With a goal of returning to balanced budgets after $47 billion in stimulus spending, the Harper government delayed or cut over $32 billion in planned procurement spending and laid off 400 personnel from DND's procurement branch. Among the casualties was the army's $2.1-billion close-combat vehicle. There are several reasons why this pattern has repeated itself, but two stand out. First, defence is a tempting target for any government belt-tightening drive, typically accounting for a large share of discretionary federal spending. With most federal money going to individual citizens (employment insurance, pensions, tax benefits) and provinces (health and social transfers), there simply is little fiscal room left outside of defence. To remove money from these politically popular programs is to risk voter resentment and the ire of provincial governments. In short, when past federal governments confronted a choice between cutting tanks and cutting transfers, they cut the tanks. Second, Canada's geostrategic position has helped. Sitting securely atop North America in alliance with the world's pre-eminent superpower has meant, in the words of a defence minister under Pierre Trudeau, Donald Macdonald, that “there is no obvious level for defence expenditures” in Canada. Meeting the terms of our alliances with the United States and NATO means that Canada has to do its part in securing the northern half of the continent and contributing to military operations overseas, but generally in peacetime Ottawa has a lot of leeway in deciding what to spend on defence, even if allies growl and complain. Yet it is this same geostrategic position that may lessen the impact of any cuts related to COVID-19. Unlike the Mulroney and Chrétien governments, who made their decisions amid the end of Cold War tensions, or the Harper government, which was withdrawing from the combat mission in Afghanistan, this government must make its choices in an international security environment that is becoming more volatile. The spread of the virus has amplified trade and military tensions between the world's two superpowers and weakened bonds among European Union member states as they fight to secure personal protective equipment and stop the contagion at their borders. Governments worldwide are now unabashedly protectionist in their efforts to prevent the export of medical equipment and vital materials. As supply chains fray, pressures mount for each country to have a “sovereign” industrial capability, including in defence. In fact, the Trump administration has turned to the 1950 Defense Production Act to direct meatpacking plants to remain open or to restrict the export of health products (three million face masks bound for Canada were held up, then released). The pandemic is intensifying the Trump administration's skepticism of alliances and international institutions; in late March, there was even discussion of stationing US troops near the Canadian border (the plan was eventually abandoned). Smaller powers like Canada that have traditionally relied on American security guarantees will have to maintain their defence spending, or even increase it, as they try to strengthen old alliances and create new ones. As Timothy Choi, a naval expert at the University of Calgary, has told me, an irony of the pandemic is that it may see the National Shipbuilding Strategy become a “major destination for stimulus spending in times of recession.” Either way, by the time the pandemic subsides, Canadians may yet find out that there is indeed an “obvious level” to defence spending. This article is part of the The Coronavirus Pandemic: Canada's Response special feature. Photo: The Halifax-class navy frigate HMCS Fredericton in the waters of Istanbul Strait, Turkey. Shutterstock.com, by Arkeonaval. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2020/defence-procurement-wont-be-so-easy-to-cut-in-a-time-of-covid-19/
September 9, 2019 | Local, Aerospace
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has added two new events to its fall calendar for its Deep-space Healthcare Initiative; a National Space Health Forum and a NanoRacks Industry Day. National Space Health Forum The National Space Health Forum is scheduled for November 13 and 15 at CSA headquarters. The event is described as follows; Envision the expanse of healthcare innovation to support human deep-space exploration. Get ready to become involved in shaping Canada's future in deep-space healthcare. Catalyze the growth of your network. NanoRacks Industry Day The NanoRacks Industry Day is scheduled for November 15, also at CSA headquarters. The event is described as follows; “The participants will meet Nanoracks, who will present their current product platform and future plans, and will be seeking to secure partnerships with Canadian space & health stakeholders. Registration details will be sent out shortly.” More information on these events and the CSA's Deep-space Healthcare Initiative is available here: http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/events/2019/deep-space-healthcare.asp Learn more about Canada's space health and innovation plans. http://spaceq.ca/canadian-space-agency-adds-new-events-for-its-deep-space-healthcare-initiative/