19 mai 2023 | Local, Autre défense
Today's letters: Canada's defence procurement carries needless risks
Friday, May 19: When it comes to military spending, maybe wiser, more affordable options are available, a reader says.
Ottawa pushes navy's planned supply ships to the front of the construction queue
Murray Brewster · CBC News
The Liberal government has decided to pull out all the stops on the construction of the navy's planned permanent supply ships — a move that's raised questions about how quickly the Canadian Coast Guard will get a critical oceanographic science vessel.
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) issued a statement Tuesday that announced the re-sequencing of the construction schedules for vessels being built at the Vancouver Shipyard, which is owned by Seaspan.
The company has already started preliminary construction work on the first of the navy's long-awaited Joint Support Ships and the federal government says the work will continue until the vessel is completed.
Under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, Seaspan was suppose to first construct three small fisheries research ships and a larger oceanographic vessel before working on the navy's long-awaited supply ships.
Adhering to that plan in the face of repeated organizational delays meant delivery of those supply ships — which are considered critical to allowing the navy to operate beyond Canadian shores — would not happen until 2023 at the earliest.
The PSPC statement said that once the first supply ship is finished, Seaspan will turn its attention to the coast guard oceanographic ship and then build the last planned naval supply ship.
"Given the complexity of this build, this change in sequencing will ensure focused engineering resources on each of the projects, while allowing for time between construction of the first and second [Joint Support Ship] to incorporate lessons learned," said PSPC spokesman Pierre-Alain Bujold in a statement.
"Moreover, this allows for uninterrupted work at the shipyard, mitigating the risk of potential layoffs and production gaps between builds."
Bujold said additional details on the construction schedule will be released at a later date.
The change to the schedule was, according to sources in the defence industry, agreed upon at the recent Trudeau government cabinet retreat in Sherbrooke, Que.
Rob Huebert, a defence expert at the University of Calgary, said the decision "leaves most people scratching their heads" because of the difficulty involved in getting a shipyard to switch up construction between different types of vessels.
"Why you would interrupt the building of ships by putting another style and class of vessel in the middle completely boggles my mind," said Huebert, a noted expert on the Arctic. "I don't know why you would do it."
If anything, he said, the federal government should simply build both naval ships and then move on the coast guard ship.
The re-sequencing means the navy could be waiting until the late 2020s for its second supply vessel, which would make the program a multi-decade odyssey.
The Liberal government of former prime minister Paul Martin originally ordered the replacement of the auxiliary ships in 2004, but the program was cancelled in 2008 by the Conservatives when cost estimates exceeded the budget envelope.
Huebert said Tuesday's announcement also raises questions about when Canadians will see the heavy icebreaker that Seaspan is also slated to build.
The PSPC website says the program is under review and "no activities are planned until work on other projects has advanced."
The federal government apparently has not yet formally notified Seaspan of the schedule change, although the shipyard has awarded a series of sub-contracts to companies such as INDAL in Mississauga, Ont., and L3 MAPPS in Montreal, for supply ship components.
Seaspan is expected to announce another contract on Wednesday with Lockheed Martin Canada related to the supply ships.
Ever since the Conservatives cancelled the first iteration of the supply ship project, the federal government has struggled to get it back on track, setting and missing several deadlines.
The supply ships were supposed to arrive in 2017. The date was pushed back to 2019, and then to 2022. The absence of a supply ship prompted the Davie shipyard, in Levis, Que., to pitch a converted civilian cargo ship for navy use.
That $668 million lease deal is at the centre of the breach-of-trust case against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman. Davie is pitching the federal government on leasing another cargo ship.
A spokesman for Davie, Frederik Boisvert, called Tuesday's decision "an insult to taxpayers" and claimed that Seaspan has failed to deliver on the supply ship project and "should be blacklisted by the government and not rewarded for failure."
The effect of switching up the schedule means the navy might not need a second supply ship leasing deal.
Sources within the coast guard and the defence industry have said that the design and project coordination for the fisheries science vessel is not as far advanced as the navy supply ship program and that is an important factor in the federal government's timing decision.
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23 octobre 2020 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Canada moves closer to military-spending target following previous critique from NATO, U.S.
OTTAWA - Canada has taken a big leap closer to meeting its promise to the NATO military alliance to spend a larger share of its economy on defence thanks to an unexpected assist from COVID-19. New NATO figures released Wednesday show that largely thanks to the pandemic, Canada is poised to spend the equivalent of more of its gross domestic product on defence this year than at any point in the past decade. That is because the alliance expects the Liberal government to hold Canadian defence spending steady even as COVID-19 batters the country's economic output. Yet defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says the results are unlikely to appease the United States, as Canada continues to fall far short of its promise to NATO to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. “I think they'll be pleased to see positive momentum,” Perry said of the U.S., “but it doesn't resolve their concern about where we are.“ All NATO members, including Canada, agreed in 2014 to work toward spending the equivalent of two per cent of their GDP — a standard measurement of a country's economic output — on defence within the next decade. The promise followed complaints from the U.S. about burden-sharing among allies and broader concerns about new threats from Russia and China as the two countries increased their own military spending. NATO and the U.S. have repeatedly criticized Canada for not meeting the target, with President Donald Trump in December calling Canada “slightly delinquent” during a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His predecessor, Barack Obama, also called out Canada over its defence spending during an address to Parliament in 2016. The U.S. spends more than any other NATO member on defence, both in terms of raw cash and as a share of GDP. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said the continued importance of increasing military spending would be discussed when defence ministers from across the alliance meet this week. The NATO figures show that Canada is poised to spend 1.45 per cent of its GDP on the military this year. That is not only a big jump from the 1.29 per cent last year, but the largest share of the economy in a decade. It also exceeds the government's original plan, laid out in the Liberals' defence policy in 2017, to spend 1.4 per cent of GDP on the military by 2024-25. That is when NATO members were supposed to hit the two-per-cent target. Yet the figures show the expected increase isn't the result of a new infusion of cash for the Canadian Armed Forces this year as spending is expected to hit $30 billion, up just over $1 billion from 2019. Rather, NATO predicts Canadian GDP will shrink by about eight per cent this year as COVID-19 continues to ravage the economy. The fact Canadian defence spending is expected to remain largely steady despite the pandemic is noteworthy, particularly as there have been fears in some corners about cuts to help keep the federal deficit under control. The NATO report instead appears to lend further credence to recent assertions from Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Defence Department deputy minister Jody Thomas and others that the Liberals are not readying the axe. Canada also remained 21st out of 29 NATO members in terms of the share of GDP spent on the military as other allies also got a surprise boost from the economic damage wrought by COVID-19. At the same time, Perry said the government has yet to lay out a timetable for when it plans to meet the two per cent target. Military spending is instead expected to start falling after 2024-25, according to the Liberal defence plan. Despite having agreed to the target during the NATO leaders' summit in Wales in 2014, successive Canadian governments have repeatedly described the NATO target as “aspirational.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2020. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/10/21/canada-jumps-closer-to-military-spending-target-thanks-to-covid-19s-economic-damage.html
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19 janvier 2023 | Local, Aérospatial
Le ministère de la Défense nationale augmente sa contribution financière pour les travaux de modernisation de la piste de l’aéroport d’Inuvik
Le 19 janvier 2023 – Inuvik (Territoires du Nord‑Ouest) – Ministère de la Défense nationale/Forces armées canadiennes Aujourd’hui, le député des Territoires du Nord‑Ouest, Michael V. McLeod, a annoncé, au nom de la ministre de la Défense nationale Anita Anand, que le ministère de la Défense nationale augmentera de 80 millions de dollars son investissement dans la modernisation de la piste de l’aéroport d’Inuvik, portant ainsi sa contribution à 230 millions de dollars. Le financement sera versé au gouvernement des Territoires du Nord‑Ouest et servira à achever le reste des travaux nécessaires pour prolonger et moderniser la piste principale de 6 000 pieds de l’aéroport d’Inuvik. Les travaux de modernisation de la piste d’Inuvik visent principalement à améliorer la capacité de l’aérodrome à accueillir des aéronefs plus grands et plus lourds, ce qui constitue une amélioration importante de la capacité du Commandement de la défense aérospatiale de l’Amérique du Nord (NORAD) et de l’Aviation royale canadienne (ARC) de mener des opérations dans le Nord et l’Arctique. Ces travaux sont essentiels pour que les Forces armées canadiennes puissent continuer d’avoir la capacité de relever les nouveaux défis en matière de sécurité dans le Nord et l’Arctique, et ils font écho à l’annonce de la ministre Anand, en juin 2022, concernant le plan du gouvernement visant à moderniser les capacités du NORAD au Canada. Plaque tournante centrale du transport dans l’Arctique de l’Ouest et communauté en pleine croissance, Inuvik est un emplacement de choix pour nous permettre d’atteindre nos objectifs dans l’Arctique, tout en créant des possibilités pour les collectivités autochtones et du Nord. Nous prévoyons que les travaux de modernisation de la piste seront terminés en 2027. Le gouvernement du Canada est déterminé à faire en sorte que les membres des Forces armées canadiennes disposent de l’infrastructure dont ils ont besoin dans le Nord pour s’entraîner et accomplir leurs tâches efficacement. Le financement pour ce projet permettra également de créer des emplois bien rémunérés et des possibilités économiques pour la région Beaufort‑Delta pendant la construction. https://www.canada.ca/fr/ministere-defense-nationale/nouvelles/2023/01/le-ministere-de-la-defense-nationale-augmente-sa-contribution-financiere-pour-lestravaux-de-modernisation-de-la-piste-de-laeroport-dinuvik.html