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  4 août 2020 | Local, Naval

  Quebec shipyard is setting up an Arctic icebreaking research centre

  Centre to serve as hub for innovation in Canadian Arctic, Davie Shipyard executive says Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Aug 04, 2020 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 8 hours ago Describing itself as Canada's polar partner, the Chantier Davie Shipyard in Quebec plans to announce the creation of a national centre on Tuesday focusing on icebreaking in the country's Arctic. It is, according to a senior executive at the Levis, Que., company, more than just an engineering centre and will encompass the climatic, economic and social factors that will drive the region for the next 30 years and beyond. "It is a bigger discussion," said Spencer Fraser, the director of business development for the Inosea Group of Companies, which owns the shipyard. "It's not just around icebreaking and shipbuilding in Canada." The Arctic icebreaking centre is intended to bring together community and business leaders as well as scientists and engineers — from both northern and southern Canada — in a conference later this year. Shaping the Arctic economy of the 21st century They'll be asked to envision and debate what kind of ships and infrastructure are needed to drive future economic and social development in Canada's Arctic, which is being transformed by climate change and shifting geopolitics. "We're getting together to ask: In 2050, the North is going to look like this, what do we want the economy to look like? And what do we need to do today to get the wheels in motion so we can achieve that?" Fraser told CBC News. More than that, he said, the centre is intended to be a place of ongoing dialogue that will hopefully produce the kind of innovation needed to restore Canada as a world-leader in Arctic operations. By tapping into a wide range of expertise, he said the Chantier Davie initiative intends to showcase Canadian Arctic ingenuity on the world stage, which has for the last 20 years been dominated by Finland and Norway. The company, which is on track to be the federal government's third go-to shipyard under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, intends to carve out a place as the country's premier icebreaker-builder. The other two strategic shipbuilding partners are Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, which concentrates on the construction of warships, and Vancouver's Seaspan, which is building fisheries science vessels and naval support ships. Chantier Davie was given a federal contract worth up to $827 million to convert three existing commercial icebreakers for use by the Canadian Coast Guard. The first vessel — CCGS Captain Molly Kool — was delivered, but the other two — CCGS Jean Goodwill and CCGS Vincent Massey — have been delayed, the Fisheries Department recently told The Canadian Press. The federal government wants to see its third strategic yard concentrate on building icebreakers and intends to funnel the construction of six ships to the company in the coming year. Concurrently, it has asked the wider shipbuilding industry to build a case for the construction of heavy icebreakers in the Far North. Centre should focus on changes facing the Arctic: expert Rob Huebert, a professor at the University of Calgary and an Arctic expert, said an icebreaking centre of excellence is a novel and important idea. He said the country was, until the 1980s, a world leader in the field, but interest and investment waned after Far North oil and natural gas development plans were shelved. However, he said it needs to be more than just window-dressing and a business vehicle for Chantier Davie. "If they're being serious, they'll not just be focused on their product," Huebert said. "If it is just simply, 'look at what good icebreakers we have and look at how we can provide work' then that, in my mind, will really be just a PR exercise." Appointment of U.S. Arctic co-ordinator may signal more muscular American policy Liberals guarantee immediate icebreakers work for new entrant in federal shipbuilding program What the centre needs to do is go beyond what one company or another produces and focus on how the changing Arctic will be affected by a myriad of circumstances and conditions and the technology Canada will need to address them, he added. Climate change and shifting geopolitical rivalries are but two examples. The Trump Administration recently appointed a career diplomat to become the country's first Arctic co-ordinator — a sign that the country is taking the region more seriously. The U.S. Air Force also recently published an Arctic strategy intended to counter Russia and China's growing influence and ambitions in the region. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/arctic-icebreaking-centre-1.5672800

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  7 octobre 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité, Autre défense

  How the U.S. election outcome could affect Canada's environment and energy future

  Alexander Panetta Biden, Trump have deep differences — and each could significantly impact Canada This story is part of a five-part series looking at how the policies of the two U.S. presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, differ when it comes to the major issues of interest to Canada, including energy, defence, trade and immigration. The old truism that elections have consequences is doubly apt for the United States, a country whose politics reach beyond its borders. It's certainly so for Canada. Specific policy issues in a U.S. election hold particular stakes for Canada, including energy and the environment, national defence, the border and migration and U.S. relations with China. In advance of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3, CBC will run stories on these five issues, and how they might play out if the winner is current President Donald Trump or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Our first instalment examines one of the most striking differences between them: energy and the environment. If Biden wins Biden drew attention in Canada for promising to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, then doubling down on it. Rory Johnston, an energy analyst at Price Street in Toronto, said a president clearly has the legal power to revoke a permit. What's not clear to him is whether Biden would, in precarious economic times, actually cancel a big project, which would cost jobs and anger construction unions. The Democratic nominee has a sweeping environmental platform that goes far beyond that one pipeline pledge. For starters, he said he'd re-join the Paris climate accord on Day 1 of his presidency. Then he would convene, shame and potentially punish other countries that slack on their carbon emissions commitments. Within 100 days, Biden said he'd hold a global climate summit to push countries to join the U.S. in toughening their climate objectives. He said he would also demand a worldwide ban on government subsidies for fossil fuels. INTERACTIVE Will Biden or Trump be the U.S. president? These states will decide Biden also intends to grade countries on their performance. He promises a global climate change report, similar to the State Department's annual report on human rights and human trafficking. It would rank countries' performance in meeting their Paris commitments. If that doesn't work, he's threatening to wield the stick of trade tariffs. Biden said he wants to impose what he calls "carbon-adjustment fees," or perhaps quotas, on carbon-intensive products from countries that fail to meet climate and environmental obligations. It's not clear how many countries Biden would target. "We can no longer separate trade policy from our climate objectives," says Biden's platform. Canada is projecting a lowering of emissions but not nearly by enough to meet its Paris commitment. Implementing such a tariff could be tricky. To become embedded in U.S. law, it would have to get through Congress — and receiving the 51 to 60 per cent of votes required in the Senate would be a tall order. Some trade analysts believe such a tactic would also be illegal protectionism under international trade law unless the U.S. imposed a similar carbon tax domestically — also a tall order. However, other analysts say there's one tool Biden could use, which has become famous in the Trump era: declare carbon emissions a national security matter and apply the same trade weapon the current president used against foreign steel and aluminum. Any regulatory moves could face another hurdle in a more hostile Supreme Court. Speaking of the environment and trade, Biden is proposing a massive, $2 trillion green-infrastructure plan aimed at new transit, vehicles and a carbon-free power grid by 2035. Biden says the construction would be done by U.S. firms under Buy American rules. He would also re-establish policies from the Obama era that Canada has signed onto, from methane and auto regulations to an Arctic drilling ban. Gerald Butts, who was a former senior aide to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and worked on some of those agreements with the U.S, said Biden's climate policies go far beyond Obama's and reflect a growing recognition of the environmental threat. "Biden's plan would have been unthinkable for a presidential nominee for a major party even one cycle ago," said Butts, now vice-chair of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Bob Deans, a spokesman for the political action committee of the Washington-based Natural Resources Defence Council, called climate change a defining issue for this election. "The American people are facing a stark choice in this election. Two completely different energy futures," Deans said. "We need to be reducing our reliance on oil and gas, not locking future generations into this climate nightmare." If Trump wins In his 2016 platform, Trump promised more oil drilling, more pipelines — and less regulation. He delivered that on several fronts. Just last month he announced a border permit for a multi-purpose rail project that, if built, could eventually ship Canadian oil through Alaska. Trump ditched a number of Obama's climate rules, and left the Paris Accord. (His pullout from the Paris agreement officially goes into effect the day after this year's election.) Trump hasn't published a platform for the next four years. His campaign website simply lists things he's done to slash regulations and promote fossil-fuel development. He's promising no major policy changes. "We would continue what we're doing," Trump told The New York Times, when asked about his overall second-term plans. As far as Canada is concerned, that means a continued commitment to the still-unbuilt Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry nearly one-fifth of the oil Canada exports to the U.S. each day. Johnston said that pipeline isn't, on its own, a make-or-break issue for the Canadian oilpatch, but it would help, he said. He said the oilsands likely need two pipelines completed over the next few years out of the three major projects underway — Trans Mountain to the Pacific Coast, the Line 3 expansion to the Great Lakes and Keystone XL to the Gulf of Mexico — to avoid the type of transportation bottlenecks that have previously devastated Canadian oil prices. "It's never ideal to be just at the limit of your [transportation] capacity," Johnston said. Even with the current president's support, Keystone XL faces challenges. The ground has been cleared for only 100 kilometres of pipe to be laid inside Canada. A border-crossing segment has been built, and 17 pump stations out of an eventual 36 along the route are under construction. That leaves the project about two years, many hundreds of kilometres and some legal and regulatory fights shy of completion. A Supreme Court decision this summer allowed a Montana ruling to stand, which forced the pipeline company to get permits for crossing waterways. Permit hearings were scheduled for late September in Montana and North Dakota. It's an uncertain moment for oil — and the financial stakes for Canada are considerable. It's Canada's top export to the U.S., in dollar figures; Canadian oil accounts for about half of U.S. oil imports, following years of growth. But energy giant BP projects that global oil demand has peaked. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects U.S. imports will flatten out and even decline a bit. That's happening as several automakers say they will keep building vehicles to the stricter emissions standards set in California — standards that are backed by Ottawa. California, the largest U.S. vehicle market, recently announced it planned to ban sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Some of these changes in energy markets will proceed regardless of who's president. Johnston's own projection? Barring a sudden change in the market, Canadian oil production will grow a bit for two to five years, then plateau at similar levels for decades. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-issues-canada-environment-1.5746288

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  17 janvier 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

  Airbus n'écarte pas la possibilité d'assembler des avions de chasse au Québec

  La Presse canadienne Airbus n'écarte pas la possibilité que le Québec puisse accueillir une chaîne de montage d'avions de chasse ainsi qu'un lieu destiné à la construction de satellites si le géant européen parvient à décrocher de nouveaux contrats au Canada. Ces scénarios ont été évoqués lundi par le président des activités canadiennes de la multinationale, Simon Jacques, lors d'un événement organisé par la multinationale à Mirabel, dans les Laurentides, où s'effectue l'assemblage des appareils A220, nés de la C Series de Bombardier. Airbus convoite notamment l'appel d'offres du gouvernement canadien, qui devrait être lancé avant le début de la prochaine campagne électorale, pour l'achat de 88 avions de chasse visant à remplacer ses CF-18 vieillissants. Airbus propose l'Eurofighter Typhoon. « Absolument », a répondu M. Jacques lorsqu'il lui a été demandé si la chaîne de montage pourrait se trouver au Québec. « Nous évaluons nos options. » En plus d'Airbus, les entreprises Boeing, Lockheed Martin et Saab ont été retenues par le gouvernement canadien. « La construction d'une nouvelle ligne d'assemblage, qui entraînerait la création de nombreux emplois, ne serait pas un casse-tête logistique étant donné qu'il y a de l'espace de disponible à Mirabel, dans les Laurentides, où s'effectue l'assemblage de l'avion A220 », a expliqué M. Jacques. Puisque l'appel d'offres devrait imposer du contenu local, le dirigeant d'Airbus au Canada a dit vouloir proposer une « solution canadienne ». Déjà un lien L'actionnaire majoritaire de l'A220 a décroché son premier contrat d'envergure en 2016 avec Ottawa, qui lui a commandé 16 avions de recherche et de sauvetage, une entente de 2,4 milliards de dollars, en plus de 2,3 milliards en entretien et service après-vente pour 20 ans. Le premier de ces appareils doit être livré d'ici la fin de l'année. Les CF-18 mis en service dans les années 1980 devaient être retirés d'ici 2020, mais leur remplacement s'est transformé en une longue saga. Il y a six ans, le gouvernement Harper a abandonné dans la controverse son projet d'acheter des avions de chasse F-35 sans appel d'offres pour remplacer cette flotte vieillissante. Le gouvernement Trudeau, qui avait par la suite décidé d'acheter 18 avions Super Hornet à Boeing également sans appel d'offres, a annulé cet achat en 2017 dans la foulée du conflit commercial entre Boeing et Bombardier à propos de la C Series. D'ici à ce que ce contrat se concrétise, Ottawa s'est tourné vers l'Australie pour acheter des avions de chasse provisoires. D'après M. Jacques, le Canada est « vraiment engagé » à « stimuler la concurrence », ce qui pourrait ouvrir une porte à un autre constructeur que l'américaine Boeing. « Je pense que c'est important pour le Canada d'avoir une flotte différente de ce qu'il y a aux États-Unis [avec Boeing], a-t-il dit. [Cela serait] une bonne chose pour le NORAD [Commandement de la défense aérospatiale de l'Amérique du Nord]. » Citant l'exemple du Royaume-Uni, qui est client d'Airbus et de Lockheed Martin pour sa flotte, M. Jacques a soutenu que rien n'empêchait le Canada de faire de même. Des satellites en plus? Parallèlement au dossier des avions de combat, le dirigeant d'Airbus a mentionné que l'entreprise pourrait se tourner vers le Québec pour la construction de satellites si sa proposition est retenue par Télésat Canada, un exploitant de satellites de télécommunication. Cette entreprise avait sollicité des offres à Airbus et à Thales pour le lancement en orbite « d'entre 300 et 500 satellites », selon M. Jacques, dans le cadre d'un projet entourant l'accès à Internet. « Cela viendrait changer la donne au Québec », a-t-il lancé, en évoquant au passage la création de quelque 200 emplois. Airbus dit échanger avec différents ordres de gouvernement, dont Québec et Ottawa, dans le but de s'installer dans la province si la multinationale obtient le contrat. https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1146770/airbus-possibilite-assembler-avions-chasse-quebec