Please hold up a hand if you believe anyone will be doing jail time for stealing millions of Canadian taxpayer dollars in the Sponsorship Scandal which is currently the only topic of conversation on Ottawa’s cocktail party circuit.
[. . . . ] Sometimes humour is our only defense. The truth was laid bare in a cartoon in the Globe and Mail last week, titled Two Ships Passing in the Night. One ship is a luxury yacht with dancers on deck, the smokestack funnel logo a dollar sign, the upper deck signed Gun Registry Program, the lower deck signed Sponsorship Scandal. The other ship, headed slowly in the opposite direction on a zigzag course, is a decrepit little used submarine. On one people dine in luxury. On the other, people die.
Have you ever met anyone who has more money than they need? . . . .
Imelda Marcos . . . .
. . . Fulgencio Batista. . . .
. . . . the Hussein brothers. . . .
. . . the last two of our Prime Ministers. . . .
Auditor General Sheila Fraser, appears to be the only person on our political horizon who has any interest in which black hole Canadian taxpayers’ money has been sucked into.
AS PRIME-MINISTERIAL occasions go, being questioned for more than four hours at a judicial inquiry—broadcast on live television—hardly ranks among the most agreeable. Indeed no serving Canadian prime minister had suffered such an indignity for 130 years. In the event, Paul Martin acquitted himself rather well when he appeared as a witness before an inquiry into sleaze on February 11th. But 15 months after succeeding his fellow-Liberal, Jean Chrétien, Mr Martin, a successful finance minister for almost a decade until 2002, cannot quite shake off the impression that Canada's top job is too big for him. [. . . . ]
It is a job, apparently, only for one who knows who to pay off . . .
'For far longer — and to a greater degree — than we might care to acknowledge as a nation that prides itself on its internationalism, our foreign policy has been captive of domestic realities. Specifically, the imperative of national unity."
Rudyard Griffiths is the director of the Dominion Institute.
The defeat in the House of Commons of the government's plan to split the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in two capped off a dismal couple of weeks for the Prime Minister's foreign policy agenda. As a recent EKOS survey revealed, North American missile defence is now politically dead on arrival with voters and the Liberal caucus creating yet another bilateral headache with the Bush administration. [. . . . ]
What has happened to our ability to act in the world, to articulate a coherent foreign policy? [. . . . ]
Better read this one -- ranging over the history of "Quebec nationalism and foreign policy"
As with the shipborne helicopters, the final Cabinet decision on the new search and rescue helicopters was delayed amid speculation that the government wanted a wider distribution of whatever regional benefits the project would generate. On November 8, 1995, . . . proceed with the acquisition of new search and rescue helicopters. . . . Deliveries were expected to begin in 1998.
[. . . .] Solicitation of Interest. . . the Department wanted helicopters with. . . . The manufacturers were expected to respond by the end of February 1996.
...The government's decision to proceed with the purchase of the new rescue helicopters came at the same time as residual issues from the cancellation of the EH-101 project were being resolved. . . . Unisys GSG Canada, formerly known as Paramax and now known as Lockheed Martin Canada. . . . government paid the company $166 million as compensation for the work completed prior to the cancellation of the EH-101 contract.
When we add that to the $100 million for jets I am quite sure we could have bought some of these planes a long time ago.
[. . . . ] 1995, the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, David Dingwall, . . . an agreement . . . EH Industries, the Westland-Agusta Consortium. . . . the total spent on the EH project is about $478.6 million.
Half a billion dollars has been wasted while we have been looking for helicopters for 10 years. If we take that half billion dollars, add it to the $100 million for the jets that will fly the cabinet ministers around and add $174 million to the satellite dish sitting in a warehouse. . .
[. . . . ] While the manufacturers were preparing their proposals, the Department of National Defence announced that the Request for Proposals for new search and rescue helicopters would be delayed by six months. . . . there would be two Requests for Proposals, one for the helicopters and one for their maintenance. The latter is to be issued in 1998.
Meanwhile, the Sea Kings and Labradors . . . . three of Canada's fleet of Sea Kings were grounded for the inspection and repair of cracks found in the tail section of the airframes. Although cracks were also found in the rest of the fleet, in different areas of the airframe, flight operations continued, pending repair at a later date.
[. . . . ] official inquiry into the April 1994 crash of a Sea King. The inquiry had recommended patching a hole in the cabin ceiling to prevent the leakage of fuel into the cabin, and this had been done expeditiously--
Imagine patching a hole and it being done expeditiously.
--however, other recommendations were rejected by the military or have not been fully implemented. Meanwhile, there were news reports that the crews of Labrador helicopters had been instructed to carry out training flights over open fields rather than forested areas in case of an engine failure. [. . . . ]
In 1998, the Canadian government signed a $790-million deal to buy 15 CH-149 Cormorant helicopters from EH Industries, a British/Italian consortium. The Cormorants based on the company's EH-101 model, have slowly been replacing the aging Labradors since 2001.
While the Cormorants will be used for search and rescue, the government has decided to use a different helicopter for the military: the Sikorsky S-92. Twenty-eight of them will be purchased to replace the ancient Sea Kings.
Back in 1993, then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien cancelled a program to buy the EH-101 helicopter to replace both the Sea Kings and the Labradors, because it was too expensive. It would take more than a decade before the military would be certain of getting new helicopters. Some in the military say it would have been more sensible to have the same model for its maritime fleet in order to train technicians, air crews and maintenance workers.
But the new Cormorants have had their problems. . . cracks . . . . the third time in 2004 the Cormorants had to be grounded.
The Cormorants have also required more maintenance than their manufacturer initially promised. [. . . . ]
Scary stuff! No wonder there are so many helicopter crashes. This image is of cracks found during routine inspections of the Canadian Sea King helicopter. Pilots and crew of these helicopters were seriously alarmed (and rightly so) when this information was released. They were especially concerned because the cracks weren't found in just one location - they were all over the craft. There was no real uniformity at all.
