No need to ensure purchased military equipment actually works, government officials argue in procurement dispute

Sur le même sujet

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  3 décembre 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  After agreeing to $2B in deals with U.S.-based defence companies, Liberals ask DND for list of Canadian firms to quickly buy from

  David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen Dec 03, 2020 Companies must be based in Canada and the work has to be completed relatively quickly, creating or maintaining domestic jobs. After committing to spend more than $2 billion with American companies, the Liberal government wants to give a major boost to homegrown defence firms by moving ahead on projects that can purchase equipment for the Canadian military quickly from domestic companies to either create or shore up jobs. Department of National Defence officials began looking in late April at options to provide support to the defence industry as the new coronavirus pandemic rocked the economy. DND and the government hoped the fast-tracked purchases would help Canada's economic recovery. But so far, the four major purchases over the last several months for the Canadian military saw the Liberal government make major commitments with U.S.-based companies for work that will be done almost entirely in America and create or support hundreds of U.S. jobs. That includes the acquisition of new surveillance aircraft for Canadian special forces, the purchase of new systems and missiles for the air force's CF-18s, missiles for the navy and parts and equipment for C-17 transport planes. The particular equipment ordered isn't built in Canada. In some cases, the U.S. firms receiving the work are exempt from the government's requirement to match the value of the contracts with the reciprocal purchasing of services or supplies from Canadian companies. Now, the government has ordered DND officials to draw up lists of equipment that can be bought from Canadian firms. Companies must be based in Canada and the work has to be completed relatively quickly, creating or maintaining domestic jobs. DND spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier confirmed options are being examined to help minimize the impact of COVID-19 on the defence industry. “We are looking at ongoing procurement projects to determine what we may be able to prioritize in order to ensure our defence industry partners are supported,” he said. “This is ongoing at this time, though no decisions have been made at this point.” But Tamara Lorincz, a peace activist and PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs, says many more jobs could be created in Canada if the money was directed into non-defence sectors of the economy. She pointed to the 2009 U.S. study by University of Massachusetts, which examined the impact of spending $1 billion on both military and non-military areas. The non-military areas included clean energy, health care, and education, as well as for tax cuts which produce increased levels of personal consumption. The study concluded substantially more jobs were created by non-military sectors. Lorincz noted that there were no comparable independent studies which have looked at the Canadian situation. Lorincz and various peace groups are also questioning the Liberal government's plans to spend $19 billion on new fighter jets in the coming years. The money should instead go towards programs like national pharmacare or child care, she added. Lorincz noted it costs $40,000 an hour to operate a F-35, one of the fighter jets being considered by the Liberals. That amount is close to the yearly salary of a long-term care facility employee, she added. Christyn Cianfarani, president of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, said the country's defence industry can play an important role in the federal government's COVID-19 economic recovery plan. The association has recommended to government that it accelerate military equipment project approvals, favour domestic firms as much as possible for future work, as well as focus on Canadian-based cyber firms for associated purchases as the government moves its employees to more remote work. Construction projects on bases could also provide local contractors with work, she added. Canada's defence industry actually fared better than other economic sectors during the pandemic, Cianfarani noted. There were no significant layoffs and most firms have been able to continue operations and production. In addition, some companies switched to producing medical equipment or protective gear for use by hospital staff during the pandemic. The Liberal government announced Monday it wants to spend up to $100 billion between 2021 and 2024 to help the economy recover from COVID-19. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/after-agreeing-to-2b-in-deals-with-u-s-based-defence-companies-liberals-ask-dnd-for-list-of-canadian-firms-to-quickly-buy-from

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  18 décembre 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

  PropWorks: Sustained growth over 2 decades

  by Ken Pole Ever since French engineer Henri Giffard flew a hydrogen-filled dirigible 27 kilometres from Paris to Elancourt in September 1852, the propeller was for nearly a century the only way to sustain powered flight. It would be another 51 years before Orville and Wilbur Wright used this “airscrew” technology in the first flight of a powered fixed-wing aircraft at Kitty Hawk, N.C. The Wright brothers also came up with the idea of adding a twist to each blade, giving a more consistent angle of attack. Despite the advent and evolution of jets since the early 1940s, propellers have remained the preferred option for smaller aircraft. But, as with all things mechanical, they require maintenance and repair. That has enabled Winnipeg-based PropWorks Propeller Systems Inc. to become the largest company of its kind in Western Canada. “Winnipeg is where we started, on the fringe of James Richardson International Airport,” company president Jim Ross, one of the founding investors, told Skies. “The company was incorporated in October 1999 and we moved into our building in December 1999.” Winnipeg is home to about two-thirds of the total staff of 30 with the rest at its shop in Edmonton. PropWorks is now privately held by Ross along with a pair of Calgary-based investors, Lorne Gray, who owns the Aircraft Canada sales and appraisal firm, and AvMax Group Inc. “I'm the only constant,” he laughed, quickly adding that some of his employees also are long-term. Before the company was founded, Ross spent 15 years with Cessna Aircraft Co., doing finance and some marketing until it shut down its Winnipeg facility in 1992. So he began marketing for several aviation-related companies, one of which was Western Propeller. When Western decided to close the Winnipeg facility seven years later, to focus on their Edmonton and Vancouver centres, Ross and an original group of investors bought the equipment, moved it into a leased 6,500-square-foot building and began operations with just five employees. It relocated to a new 12,000-square-foot building in April 2015. The Edmonton shop, which opened in December 2006, was moved in December 2017 to a 14,000-square-foot building at Villeneuve Airport, the area's main general aviation and flight training hub. PropWorks' employees, whose experience tallies up to more than 150 years, provide services which “meet or exceed” original equipment manufacturers' specifications. “Sometimes we'll go an extra step with such things with non-destructive testing that we feel gives our customers a bit of added comfort,” Ross explained. “We have a dedicated non-destructive testing room” where blades, hubs and related components are tested before propellers are reassembled and balanced. NDT procedures include magnetic particle inspection, liquid penetrants, eddy current and ultrasonic inspection. In addition to being an Avia Propeller Service Centre, PropWorks overhauls and repairs most models of Hamilton Standard, Hamilton Sundstrand, McCauley, Dowty, MT, Sensenich and Hartzell propellers. (On a historical note, Ohio-based Hartzell dates to 1917 when Robert Hartzell, a pilot whose family owned a hardwood lumber factory and who had noticed a high failure rate in wood propellers, began producing hand-carved walnut units at the suggestion of longtime friend Orville Wright.) To this day, Hartzell prizes and cultivates customer loyalty in having built its global reputation, and so does PropWorks, which has customers in Canada, the U.S. and around the world. Ross said that as with most businesses, “it's about the people as much as the product.” One of his people is director of maintenance Mike Hudec, who had been with Western Propeller and now is his longest-term employee. Cliff Arntson, manager in Edmonton and Mike Wagner, assistant manager in Edmonton have a combined 84 years experience with propellers. Much of the U.S. business is with customers in the border markets of Minnesota and the Dakotas. PropWorks has three trucks which pick up the propellers for work in Winnipeg and Edmonton. “Our customers like that service,” said Ross. His most distant customer is AvMax, which has a base in Nairobi, Kenya, and he has other large customers primarily Canada and U.S. based. PropWorks draws on a variety of sources for its employees, including the Stevenson Campus of Red River College in Winnipeg. They come out of the aviation maintenance engineer (AME) stream but are not certified AMEs because they haven't gone through the requisite apprentice program when they join PropWorks. “They can't do that in a propeller shop because that wouldn't give them a broad enough base to qualify as AMEs,” said Ross. “There's no AME licence for propellers; there was at one time but not for many years now.” The general preference is “somebody with a good mechanical aptitude who we can put in our own training program,” he added. “It takes one to two years for them to become proficient.” Asked to explain the difference between overhaul and repair, Ross said the former involves disassembly, discarding parts mandated for replacement, installing new ones and then putting the entire assembly through NDT before it's painted, reassembled and balanced. That means it's a “zero time” propeller when it leaves the shop. Repairs, on the other hand, can involve a range of things such as dealing with blade nicks or leaking hub seals. If that's all that is done, the propeller leaves the shop as “time continued.” Like everything in aviation, propellers have long since evolved since those early fixed wood two-bladed configurations. “The simple ones nowadays are the fixed-pitch propellers that you'd see on your most basic flight training airplane,” said Ross, who is part-owner of a Cessna 172 and has about 1,000 hours logged. “Then it goes all the way up, through two-bladed constant-speed propellers to three-, four- and even five-bladed propellers.” The most complex ones are Hamilton Sundstrand propellers on the Dash 8 twin turboprop introduced by de Havilland Canada in 1984 and last built by Bombardier Aerospace in 2005. “They simply take more time,” said Ross. Then there are some which can justifiably called vintage, such as the Hamilton Standard three-bladed propellers on Second World War-era Douglas DC-3s but these are “fairly standard.” Ross noted that PropWorks donated one for the equally old North American Harvard Mark II in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum in Brandon, Man. The company is doing more composites, a capacity which required “a substantial investment” in equipment, including an autoclave to heat the laminates. Asked what the future might hold, Ross replied that while “we've just had our best year ever,” he hesitated to predict the “hectic” growth of the past 10 years would continue. “The key to growth is not necessarily going out to find new customers. It's adding to our capabilities – that way more customers are likely to send their work to us.” While he could only guess at the number of corporate or private propeller-driven aircraft in Canada, he did venture that “it's not a dying market” which bodes well for the future. https://www.skiesmag.com/news/propworks-sustained-growth-over-2-decads

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  25 mai 2023 | Local, Naval

  Le gouvernement du Canada annonce un investissement majeur dans la flotte de petits navires de la Garde côtière canadienne

  Vancouver (Colombie-Britannique) - S’assurer que les membres de la Garde côtière canadienne disposent de l’équipement dont ils ont besoin pour maintenir la navigabilité et la sécurité des voies navigables du Canada est une priorité absolue du gouvernement du Canada. Cela comprend les petits navires de la Garde côtière canadienne, qui jouent un rôle fondamental dans notre flotte, en particulier dans les eaux côtières peu profondes et sur les lacs et rivières intérieurs, où les navires plus grands ne peuvent pas circuler. Aujourd’hui, l’honorable Joyce Murray, ministre des Pêches, des Océans et de la Garde côtière canadienne, a annoncé un investissement majeur pour financer l’achèvement du renouvellement de la flotte de petits navires de la Garde côtière canadienne. L’honorable Helena Jaczek, ministre des Services publics et de l’Approvisionnement, a également participé à l’annonce depuis St. John’s (Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador), aux côtés de Joanne Thompson, députée de St. John’s-Est, et de Churence Rogers, député de Bonavista―Burin―Trinity. L’investissement, s’élevant à 2,5 milliards de dollars, permettra d’acquérir jusqu’à 61 petits navires, et de remplacer de façon continue les petits bateaux, les barges et les bateaux de travail par de nouveaux équipements plus modernes. Cet investissement aidera à moderniser la flotte de petits navires de la Garde côtière canadienne, afin qu’elle puisse garantir la sécurité des voies navigables du Canada ainsi que celle des Canadiens, tout en créant des emplois bien rémunérés partout au Canada. Cet investissement achèvera le renouvellement de la flotte de petits navires de la Garde côtière canadienne, et lui permettra d’acquérir jusqu’à : Six navires multimissions semi-hauturiers Un navire semi-hauturier de recherche halieutique 16 navires spécialisés, y compris : Deux navires spéciaux AIDNAV Quatre navires baliseurs spéciaux de faible tirant d’eau Quatre navires scientifiques côtiers Quatre navires spéciaux d’application de la loi Deux navires de classe Lake Quatre véhicules à coussin d’air 34 bateaux de recherche et sauvetage de classe Cape L’acquisition de ces petits navires offrira des possibilités aux plus petits chantiers navals et aux fournisseurs de l’ensemble du Canada, soutenant ainsi des emplois bien rémunérés dans notre industrie maritime. La Stratégie nationale de construction navale crée des emplois dans l’industrie de la construction navale et dans le secteur maritime du Canada, et fournit aux membres de la Garde côtière canadienne l’équipement dont ils ont besoin pour poursuivre leur travail important. Dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale de construction navale, 16 petits navires, dont 14 bateaux de recherche et de sauvetage et deux navires de levé et de sondage de chenal, ont été livrés à la Garde côtière canadienne. On estime que les contrats dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale de construction navale ont contribué pour environ 21,26 milliards de dollars (1,93 milliard de dollars par année) au produit intérieur brut du Canada, et créé ou maintenu plus de 18 000 emplois par année entre 2012 et 2022. Citations « Il s’agit d’un investissement vital qui aidera à moderniser la flotte de petits navires de la Garde côtière canadienne. Nous veillons à ce que la Garde côtière canadienne dispose de l’équipement dont elle a besoin pour garantir la sécurité des Canadiens et des voies navigables du Canada, tout en créant des emplois bien rémunérés partout au pays. » L’honorable Joyce Murray, ministre des Pêches, des Océans et de la Garde côtière canadienne « Dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale de construction navale, le gouvernement fournit aux membres de la Garde côtière canadienne les navires dont ils ont besoin pour mener à bien leur important travail au service des Canadiens. Cet investissement important permettra également de créer plus d’emplois, de générer d’importantes retombées économiques, et de contribuer à la croissance de l’industrie maritime dans l’ensemble du Canada. » L’honorable Helena Jaczek, ministre des Services publics et de l’Approvisionnement Faits en bref Cet investissement supplémentaire de 2,5 milliards de dollars permettra à la Garde côtière canadienne de poursuivre le renouvellement de sa flotte de petits navires en acquérant jusqu’à 61 petits navires, garantissant que la Garde côtière canadienne dispose de l’équipement moderne dont elle a besoin pour continuer à fournir des services vitaux aux Canadiens. Les petits navires peuvent fournir des services de recherche et de sauvetage, en plus de venir en aide aux navires désemparés et soutenir les programmes d’aide à la navigation. À ce jour, dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale de construction navale, 16 petits navires ont été livrés à Pêches et Océans Canada et à la Garde côtière canadienne. Cela comprend 14 bateaux de recherche et de sauvetage et deux navires de levé et de sondage de chenal. La Stratégie nationale de construction navale du gouvernement du Canada est un programme à long terme de plusieurs milliards de dollars, qui vise à renouveler les flottes de la Garde côtière canadienne et de la Marine royale canadienne, afin que les organismes maritimes du Canada disposent des navires modernes dont ils ont besoin pour réaliser leurs missions, tout en revitalisant l’industrie maritime du Canada, en créant de bons emplois pour la classe moyenne, et en assurant des retombées économiques dans tout le pays. On estime que les contrats de construction de petits navires attribués entre 2012 et 2022 dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale de construction navale contribueront à hauteur de 389,4 millions de dollars (32,4 millions de dollars par année) au produit intérieur brut, et qu’ils permettront de créer ou de maintenir 293 emplois par an, grâce à l’industrie maritime et à ses fournisseurs canadiens, et grâce aux dépenses de consommation des employés qui y sont associés. Produits connexes Document d’information – Chronologie des annonces de financement de la Stratégie nationale de construction navale pour la Garde côtière canadienne https://www.canada.ca/fr/garde-cotiere-canadienne/nouvelles/2023/05/le-gouvernement-du-canada-annonce-un-investissement-majeur-dans-la-flotte-de-petits-navires-de-la-garde-cotiere-canadienne.html