http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/01/23/pf-3432392.htmlJanuary 23, 2007
Strike delays new choppersBy MICHAEL TUTTON
HALIFAX (CP) - Replacement helicopters for Canada's geriatric fleet of Sea Kings will be delivered at least 5 1/2 weeks late from Sikorsky International because of a strike at the company's factory in the United States.
However, the federal government says the delay is reasonable, and it is forgoing the late penalty provisions in the contract, which allowed it to charge up to $100,000 a day in penalties to a maximum of $36 million. The $1.85-billion deal announced with fanfare by the federal Liberals in 2004 required delivery of the first of 28 maritime helicopters by Nov. 30, 2008.
That has been changed to Jan. 9, 2009.
At the time of the announcement, federal officials emphasized that the penalties would serve as a deterrent to the project being late.
Sikorsky International has blamed the delivery delay of the S-92 Cyclones on a strike by the Teamsters union that ended last April.
Pierre Manoni, a spokesman for the Department of Public Works, said the federal government accepted the explanation.
"The problem with the labour dispute pushed back the delivery date," he said.
"The government determined that a labour dispute caused an excusable delay, and we're going to amend the contract."
Manoni said it's expected the remaining S-92 Sikorsky choppers will be delivered at a rate of one per month after the first aircraft arrives in Canada.
Timely delivery of the Cyclones was emphasized when it was announced, partly because the fleet of existing Sea Kings requires high levels of maintenance.
There have also been two crashes of the Sea Kings in the past three years, the most recent when a helicopter ditched in the ocean off Denmark last February.
Questions about delays started to emerge last February, when The Canadian Press obtained a schedule that indicated the preliminary design for the S-92 helicopters was six months behind its original schedule.
At the time, the Department of National Defence insisted a new schedule was in place for the Cyclones and it said the time would be recovered in a new schedule.