13 mai 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
By NEIL MOSS MAY. 13, 2020
'When you are trying to fix a fiscal problem, inevitably national defence is part of the way governments have tended to try and fix that,' says defence procurement expert David Perry.
In the midst of critical procurements that will set the framework for the Canadian military for years to come, questions remain on how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the oft-delayed projects.
The pandemic has already impacted the two most high-profile defence procurement projects with another delay in the replacement of Canada's fighter fleet as well as a reduced capability at the shipyard that will be building the 15 new warships that will serve as the backbone of the Canadian Navy for decades to come.
“Companies and government are always generally working hard trying to meet [the] schedule, and make up time wherever they can afterwards, but there's a limit what you can do to replace a few lost weeks of work,” said David Perry, a defence procurement expert and vice-president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
“The impacts are going to be tangible,” Mr. Perry said, adding that the picture is still murky about the final impact on the current procurements as defence companies are still trying to get a handle on the pandemic.
The high-profile $19-billion project to replace Canada's fleet of CF-18 fighter jets was delayed a second time in 100 days last week, over a bidder's concern over completing its bid on time, according to a Canadian Press report.
Irving Shipbuilding's Halifax shipyard, which has been tasked to build two central pieces for the future of the Canadian Navy in six Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships and 15 Canadian Surface Combatants, is running at half capacity with around 650 people working at the shipyard and 300 remotely, according to a CTV report. The two projects are projected to cost upwards of $4.3-billion and $60-billion, respectively.
Mr. Perry also said the impact on the procurements will depend on what stage the project is in, with less effect for those still in design and requirement phases and more impact on projects in the midst of construction.
He added that the impact will also depend on where the facilities are located, as the Irving shipyard in Nova Scotia faced a three-week shutdown, opposed to the Seaspan shipyards in B.C., which has continued relatively normal operations.
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence told The Hill Times that progress is still being made “where possible” on current and future equipment for the Canadian Forces.
“While our focus must be on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, we remain committed to the National Shipbuilding Strategy and other defence projects under Strong, Secure, Engaged,” the spokesperson said in an email.
“We continue to meet regularly with PSPC [Public Services and Procurement Canada] to address the delivery of ongoing and future major procurement projects, and to assess and address the impact of the pandemic on these projects. However, given that the extent of COVID-19, or how long this situation will last, cannot be assessed at this time, it is not yet possible to determine the impact this situation will have on our projects,” the statement read, adding that the focus remains on continuing essential services, which include “domestic operations and search and rescue.”
Former Air Force pilot Alan Stephenson said that there is “no doubt” that there will be “a huge impact” to defence procurement caused by the pandemic, pointing to the government's ballooning spending.
Mr. Stephenson, a retired colonel who is now a senior associate at David Pratt and Associates, said the problem with the fighter jet procurement is being compounded by successive governments' use of military spending to solve other problems.
“Now we find ourselves with ... fighters that will be over 50 years old,” he said. “And we'll be flying [the CF-18s] into the future.”
“COVID has changed the game,” Mr. Stephenson said, adding that the focus on the Liberals' 2017 defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, will still be present, but there will be fiscal questions of its feasibility.
“Hard decisions are going to have to be made,” he said, as the government will balance military requirements with economic needs.
Mr. Perry said historically when the government has needed to slash spending, it has looked at the military.
“When you are trying to fix a fiscal problem, inevitably national defence is part of the way governments have tended to try and fix that,” he said, adding that given the size of the defence budget, it is “virtually impossible” to address an economic situation without making some fiscal changes at the Department of National Defence.
But he said that historical pattern may not continue as it's a different kind of fiscal problem for the government.
“In a dynamic where you have real big impacts on consumer confidence and there's also, I think, fairly serious concerns about the availability of financing and liquidity in the civilian economy, potentially there's more of a room for DND and the Government of Canada writ large to be part of the economic solution here and not just part of the fiscal problem,” Mr. Perry said.
Former naval officer Norman Jolin, who served in the Canadian Navy for 37 years and commanded the Halifax-class HMCS Montréal, said the last thing the government will want to do is cancel projects that it has already announced at the expense of Canadian workers.
“The last thing [the government] would want to do in a world where we've lost so many jobs is to cause more people not to have jobs by cutting things,” he said.
Mr. Jolin compared the National Shipbuilding Strategy to the construction of a trans-Canada railway in the 19th century.
“This is jobs across Canada,” he said, adding that it is not just jobs at shipyards but throughout the supply chain including manufacturing jobs in southern Ontario.
Mr. Jolin said with the procurements under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the lengthy timeline will mitigate the pandemic's impact.
For the Canadian Surface Combatant procurement, the first ship isn't projected to be completed until the mid-2020s and the final delivery date for the entire fleet is in the late 2040s.
He said while there may be minor delays in the short term, it shouldn't have much impact on when the ships are delivered in the end.
But he said there is still much unknown about how the pandemic has affected the procurement process.
Charles Davies, a retired colonel in the Armed Forces who spent time as the senior director responsible for procurement and equipment management policy at the Department of National Defence, also said the long timeline on projects should reduce the impact of any delay.
“In the inherently long gestation periods of the major programs, the net impact should be limited,” he said.
Mr. Davies, a CDA Institute fellow, said now can be a time for the government to look to make key investments in capabilities that will be needed in the future to defend its borders while at the same time keeping the economy afloat.
He said unlike in the mid-1990s during the budget cuts under then-prime minister Jean Chrétien, Canada is not in the geopolitical position to allow its defence budget to dissipate.
“We're in a different world now,” he said, citing the “strategic environment” with more aggressive behaviour being seen from the Chinese and Russian governments.
21 avril 2023 | Local, Terrestre
Canada is buying gasoline and sniper rifles for Ukraine ? part of the?latest military assistance package announced Friday?by Defence Minister Anita Anand at a meeting of allies in Europe.
30 décembre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial
DAVID PUGLIESE, OTTAWA CITIZEN Canada's RADARSAT Constellation Mission is now operational and federal government departments will start receiving data from the surveillance and earth observation satellites. The RADARSAT Constellation Mission, or RCM, was launched June 12 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The constellation of three satellites will provide daily images of Canada's territory and maritime approaches, as well as images of the Arctic, up to four times a day, according to the Canadian Space Agency. It will have daily access to 90 per cent of the world's surface. The RCM is also equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS), allowing improved detection and tracking of ships, including those conducting illegal fishing, the CSA noted. The constellation is orbiting Earth at an altitude of 600 km. Each of the satellites has a life expectancy of seven years. The Canadian government owns the satellites. The three spacecraft were assembled in the Montreal area by the prime contractor MDA. Over a dozen federal government departments and agencies will use RCM images. It is estimated that the Canadian government will use approximately 250,000 images from the satellite constellation every year. That represents a fiftyfold increase from the days of the first RADARSAT-1 system, according to the Canadian government. The majority of the data transmitted from RCM is expected to be used by the Canadian Forces and the Department of National Defence. RCM follows the highly successful RADARSAT-1, launched by NASA in 1995, and RADARSAT-2, put into orbit by the Russians in 2007. Initial work on RCM began in 2005. The project cost an estimated $975 million. The RCM project was led by the Canadian Space Agency and supported by its principal users: the Department of National Defence, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Public Safety Canada. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-surveillance-satellite-system-now-operational
15 mars 2019 | Local, Aérospatial
Le gouvernement du Canada accorde une aide financière de 1,2 million de dollars à l'entreprise lavalloise Mecaer Amérique Le 13 mars 2019 – Laval (Québec) – Développement économique Canada pour les régions du Québec (DEC) Mecaer Amérique inc. est un chef de file dans la fabrication de trains d'atterrissage pour les hélicoptères, les avions de transport régional et d'affaires et pour les avions d'entraînement militaire. Afin de répondre plus adéquatement aux exigences de sa clientèle et pour assurer sa croissance, l'entreprise bénéficiera d'une contribution remboursable de 1,2 M$ de Développement économique Canada pour les régions du Québec. Gr'ce à cette aide financière, l'entreprise pourra investir dans de nouveaux procédés menant à la création d'un centre d'excellence unique et de renommée mondiale pour la conception, la fabrication et la qualification de ses systèmes d'atterrissage intégrés. Ce financement a été annoncé aujourd'hui par le député de Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, Yves Robillard. L'aide du gouvernement du Canada permettra à Mecaer Amérique de répondre à la demande mondiale croissante de production d'aéronefs, de consolider la grappe aérospatiale du Grand Montréal et de mieux positionner celle-ci sur la scène internationale. La création du centre d'excellence et la transformation technologique de l'usine lavalloise entraineront également des retombées positives chez les fournisseurs canadiens auprès desquels Mecaer Amérique effectue des achats de dizaines de millions de dollars annuellement. Mecaer Amérique est entièrement détenu par Mecaer Aviation Group (MAG), l'un des principaux fournisseurs internationaux de solutions aéronautiques utilisées dans quatre secteurs d'activité : systèmes d'actionnement et de commande de vol, systèmes de trains d'atterrissage, systèmes de confort de cabine et services aéronautiques. MAG est une entreprise italienne employant 600 personnes établies en Italie, au Canada et aux États-Unis. Mecaer Amérique est sise à Laval depuis 2002 et se spécialise dans la conception, la fabrication et la qualification de systèmes intégrés de trains d'atterrissage. La filiale lavalloise compte 125 employés hautement qualifiés, dont 20 % se consacrent à la recherche et au développement. Les travailleurs qui œuvrent dans l'industrie aérospatiale sont hautement qualifiés et contribuent à la vitalité économique du pays gr'ce à leurs emplois bien rémunérés. Voilà pourquoi le gouvernement du Canada effectue des investissements stratégiques qui permettent aux entreprises de ce secteur d'accroître leur savoir-faire et leur expertise. Citations « Conformément à notre engagement visant à favoriser la croissance de l'économie canadienne, le gouvernement du Canada s'est donné pour objectif d'offrir un meilleur soutien aux entreprises qui investissent pour améliorer leur productivité afin d'assurer leur croissance et celle de l'économie du Canada. » Yves Robillard, député de Marc-Aurèle-Fortin « À titre de ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, j'ai pour objectif d'aider les entreprises à croître et à innover, afin qu'elles puissent accroître leur compétitivité et créer des emplois de bonne qualité et de la richesse pour les Canadiens. Voilà pourquoi nous apportons notre soutien à Mecaer Amérique, dont le succès rejaillit sur la région et sur l'économie canadienne dans son ensemble. » L'honorable Navdeep Bains, ministre responsable de DEC « L'aide financière des deux ordres de gouvernement est essentielle pour notre développement stratégique. Elle démontre d'ailleurs l'accueil important envers une entreprise italienne qui a investi des sommes importantes au Québec. Merci à DEC pour son appui. » Chris O'Neill, président, Mecaer Amérique Faits en bref L'annonce d'aujourd'hui est faite au nom de l'honorable Navdeep Bains, ministre responsable du portefeuille de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, qui regroupe 17 ministères et organismes fédéraux, dont DEC et les cinq autres agences de développement régional. Les fonds ont été consentis en vertu du Programme de développement économique du Québec de DEC. Pour en savoir davantage sur DEC et ses priorités, consultez le Plan ministériel 2018-2019 ou visitez le www.dec-ced.gc.ca. L'année 2018 marque le 50e anniversaire du développement économique régional fédéral au Québec : un demi-siècle d'actions concrètes consacrées à l'essor des régions et des entreprises d'ici. https://www.canada.ca/fr/developpement-economique-regions-quebec/nouvelles/2019/03/mecaer-amerique-pourra-consolider-sa-place-a-lechelle-internationale.html