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  14 janvier 2019 | Local, Terrestre

  Nouveaux camions logistiques livrés à Valcartier

  Le 14 janvier 2019, Valcartier (Québec) Défense nationale/Forces armées canadiennes Aujourd'hui, le ministre de la Famille, des Enfants et du Développement social, Jean-Yves Duclos, au nom du ministre de la Défense nationale, Harjit S. Sajjan, a rendu visite aux membres des Forces armées canadiennes (FAC) à la Base de soutien de la 2e Division du Canada Valcartier pour voir les nouveaux camions logistiques canadiens qui y ont été livrés. Ces camions appuient la politique de défense du Canada, Protection, Sécurité, Engagement, en fournissant l'équipement moderne dont dépendent les femmes et les hommes des FAC pour réaliser leur travail. Les véhicules de soutien, comme ces camions, constituent l'épine dorsale du transport terrestre pour notre Force régulière et notre Réserve. Ces véhicules sont au cœur de presque toutes les opérations nationales et internationales des FAC, et transportent du matériel, du personnel et des fournitures essentiels là où ils doivent se rendre. Qu'il s'agisse d'aider les collectivités canadiennes à faire face à de graves inondations ou à d'autres catastrophes nationales, ou d'appuyer les opérations de l'OTAN en Lettonie et dans l'ensemble de l'Europe de l'Est, ces nouveaux camions serviront nos femmes et nos hommes pendant des décennies à venir. Des plus de 1 500 camions achetés, près de 450 seront basés au Québec et seront utilisés par les unités des FAC, y compris la Réserve. Il y aura cinq variantes de ces camions, allant des camions de transport régulier aux camions de transport avec grue de manutention de matériaux. Les cabines peuvent également être remplacées par une cabine blindée pour être utilisée dans des environnements très dangereux. L'achat de ces camions est assujetti à la politique sur les retombées industrielles et technologiques (RIT) du Canada, ce qui signifie que pour chaque dollar que le gouvernement consacre à des achats importants de matériel de défense, l'entrepreneur retenu doit remettre un dollar dans l'économie canadienne. Gr'ce à cette politique, le pouvoir d'achat du gouvernement est utilisé pour soutenir l'innovation et créer des emplois bien rémunérés dans la classe moyenne. Citations « Gr'ce à notre politique de défense, Protection, Sécurité, Engagement, nous fournissons aux femmes et aux hommes des Forces armées canadiennes le matériel dont ils ont besoin pour réaliser leur travail. Les camions logistiques sont un élément essentiel de la façon dont les militaires des Forces armées canadiennes effectuent leur important travail. C'est pourquoi je suis heureux de voir ces nouveaux véhicules modernes livrés à Valcartier et à d'autres endroits au Canada pour remplacer et moderniser la flotte actuelle de camions logistiques de poids moyen qui ont atteint la fin de leur vie utile. » – Ministre de la Défense Harjit S. Sajjan « Je suis très heureux de voir que ces nouveaux camions sont livrés à Valcartier pour être utilisés par un nombre d'unités basées au Québec. Que ce soit pour des opérations à l'étranger ou pour fournir un soutien aux collectivités locales pendant les inondations printanières, ces camions aideront les militaires des Forces armées canadiennes à accomplir leur travail. » – Ministre de la Famille, des Enfants et du Développement social Jean-Yves Duclos Faits en bref En juillet 2015, le gouvernement du Canada a octroyé deux contrats à Mack Defense, d'une valeur totale de 834 millions de dollars, pour la livraison de nouveaux camions, remorques, systèmes de protection blindée et pour du soutien en service. Au Canada, plus de 1 500 camions, 300 remorques et 150 systèmes de protection blindés devraient être livrés au cours des deux prochaines années. Les nouveaux camions peuvent transporter jusqu'à 9,5 tonnes. https://www.canada.ca/fr/ministere-defense-nationale/nouvelles/2019/01/nouveaux-camions-logistiques-livres-a-valcartier.html

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  12 mars 2019 | Local, Sécurité

  Port of Montreal busier than ever, creating opportunities for smugglers

  Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press On a crisp day in early March, Tony Boemi looks out on the stacked shipping containers that stretch into the horizon of the 26 kilometre-long Port of Montreal. "We've been going up tremendously," the port authority vice-president says. Traffic at Canada's second-largest port rose nine per cent in 2018 to the equivalent of more than 1.6 million 20-foot containers for the fifth straight year of record volumes, prompting concerns the docks will be overloaded by 2022. Vancouver and Halifax, the largest and third-largest ports, respectively, also saw record container traffic last year. "I'd be lying if I said we weren't struggling with managing the sudden surge," Boemi says. Driving the boom is Canadian demand for clothing, appliances and other consumer products made in Asia, as well as a new free trade agreement with Europe. However, the surge in traffic comes with a downside: The additional containers present an opportunity for criminals to capitalize on limited law enforcement resources and hide more contraband among the legitimate goods. Bud Garrick, an investigator with Presidia Security Consulting and former deputy director-general of the RCMP's criminal intelligence service, said imported drugs and exported stolen cars constitute the biggest smuggling problem, with authorities nabbing only a small fraction of the spoils. "Marine ports are an attractive environment for individuals with ill means and mind to smuggle things into Canada," he said. "The amount of cargo -- shipping containers -- that moves in and out of ports is phenomenal...It's a magnitude problem." The criminal allure of ports is simple. Airports are under too much scrutiny, and air freight is costly. Overland smuggling does occur, but on a smaller scale. "Trying to intercept smuggled cargo at a port is expensive and disruptive, and you'll never have enough resources to catch most things through random screening," Peter Hall, an associate professor of urban studies at Simon Fraser University, said in an email. "Mostly 1/8the CBSA 3/8 focus on screening for terrorist and bio-hazards." A 2015 federal auditor general's report found that the Canada Border Services Agency "did not fully have the necessary authorities, information, practices and controls to implement its enforcement priorities and prevent the export of goods that contravene Canada's export laws." Just like legitimate trade, black market port activity works both ways. Incoming ships bring drugs such as cocaine and heroin, while outbound ships contain a growing number of stolen vehicles. "The most prolific is actually in Alberta," said Henry Tso, vice-president of investigative services at the Insurance Bureau of Canada. "A lot of the cars are being shipped from Alberta to various ports in Canada, mainly Vancouver." More than 25,000 vehicles were stolen in Alberta in 2018, part of a 50 per cent increase over the past five years that stems in part from overseas demand for high-end pickup trucks and SUVs. The thefts, which recent cases have linked to criminal organizations in West Africa, northern Europe, the Middle East and China, rely on human as well as technological flaws. "Certain docks, there are some you know are run by organized crime. Even in Quebec, like the Montreal ports, one terminal is clean, the other one is not clean," said Tso. "The major issue is corruption," said Anthony Nicaso, who has authored more than two-dozen books on organized crime. "There is no political will to fight organized crime," he said, "probably because money does not stink, so who cares -- money is money." Back at the Montreal port, Boemi estimates the CBSA thoroughly inspects about three per cent of containers that roll through the port. The CBSA declined to give statistics, but noted that screening devices such as gamma-ray detectors -- which sense radioactive material -- scan each container. "The CBSA requires marine carriers to electronically transmit marine cargo data to the Agency 24 hours prior to the loading of cargo at a foreign port. This requirement allows the CBSA to effectively identify threats to Canada's health, safety and security and take actions prior to cargo and conveyances leaving foreign ports," the CBSA said in an email. A Canadian Senate report from 2006 found that 15 per cent of stevedores and more than two-thirds of checkers who worked at the Montreal port had criminal records, along with more than half of the workers at an outside company contracted to pick up waste and maintain ships at the docks. In an effort to boost security, the Port of Montreal now requires that truckers with Transport Canada security clearance have their fingerprints scanned upon entry. The port and CBSA have signed on for a trial run of blockchain technology that aims to better secure and streamline freight shipping. Jean-Pierre Fortin, president of the Customs and Immigration Union representing some 10,500 CBSA employees, is not satisfied. "With stolen cars, with drugs, with guns, we need to increase our capacity to monitor this properly," he said. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/port-of-montreal-busier-than-ever-creating-opportunities-for-smugglers-1.4330014

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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