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Need rescuing? wait for a weekday
Colin Kenny
For The Calgary Herald
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
If you are a foundering fisherman off the Grand Banks, or a lost child in the Alberta foothills, or a downed pilot in remote territory outside of Yellowknife or a missing boater on the Great Lakes, here is my advice to you:
Do yourself a favour. Wait another five years or so to get in that kind of desperate trouble. Until then, the government of Canada isn't going to have the kind of resources it should have in place to rescue you.
One more thing. Don't go missing outside office hours. Canada's current search-and-rescue operations tend to go a bit limp on weekends and in the evenings. Urgency takes a breather in the interests of dollars and cents.
Canada can be an unforgiving country for those who go missing. Much of our terrain is rough, remote and seemingly endless. Our waters can be wild and frigid. This is a country whose history is dotted with dramatic search and rescue efforts -- some successful, some not.
We need an effective, robust search-and-rescue capacity, and the current government's Canada First military strategy should be assuring us that we have one. It isn't.
Even this government's Liberal predecessors -- notoriously parsimonious when it came to military spending -- recognized Canadians need an effective search and rescue capacity and in 2003 declared its upgrade a priority. Unfortunately, that government didn't approve the purchase of needed replacement fixed wing aircraft before it left office. The project was still in limbo when an election was called.
Priorities don't disappear when governments change -- or shouldn't. The Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Aircraft Project seemed to in good hands when the Conservatives announced during the campaign that the heart of their military policy would be "Canada First."
If there is anything that is "Canada First," it is maintaining a capable search and rescue capacity for its citizens and others visiting the country.
But then the new government expanded Canada's commitment in Afghanistan, which has turned out to be a much more expensive proposition than expected.
As a result -- shhh!! -- the Canada First policy has become a Canada Second policy, perhaps for the next five years, perhaps for much longer.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has ordered a review of Canada's Search and Rescue capacity in the wake of growing doubts about the government's claims that Canada will not run short of fixed wing aircraft to provide adequate Search and Rescue.
Fixed-wing aircraft are essential to Search and Rescue. They can go farther and faster than helicopters and keep the situation in hand while helicopters, ships or ground vehicles are en route. Most of the fixed wing aircraft the Canadian Forces has been using for search and rescue in recent years -- Buffaloes and Hercules -- are old.
The government announced purchases of 17 new Hercules in June 2006, but these will initially be needed in Afghanistan and will not be available for search and rescue in Canada until our commitment in Afghanistan ends in 2010 -- if it does end then.
The government claims it will make more of the current fleet of ungrounded Hercules available for search and rescue by purchasing C17s and C130Js for moving troops and equipment over long distances, an argument that has a degree of truth to it. But those Hercules are going to require more and more maintenance -- like the infamous Sea King Helicopters that spent many hours in the shop for every hour they spent in the air.
Meanwhile, skimping on search and rescue makes responses to potential tragedies more dangerous on weekends. While search-and-rescue squadrons must be ready to fly within 30 minutes of any emergency during daytime working hours from Monday to Friday, the maximum response time is two hours in the evening hours and on weekends.
The Canadian Press recently reported that the Department of National Defence has estimated that as much as $2 billion would have to be added to DND's budget to ensure a 30-minute response capacity around the clock, seven days a week.
Canada needs a well-equipped military to support its troops in Afghanistan. It also needs a well-equipped military to protect Canadians at home.
Sooner or later a Canadian government is going to have to recognize that we Canadians are spending far less on our military capacity than most other reasonable mid-sized countries. At home or abroad, there is a price to pay for that.
Senator Colin Kenny is Chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. He can be reached via email at [email protected]
© The Calgary Herald 2007
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=751dcb20-f093-4b78-86b5-127afdeddaa0
Colin Kenny
For The Calgary Herald
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
If you are a foundering fisherman off the Grand Banks, or a lost child in the Alberta foothills, or a downed pilot in remote territory outside of Yellowknife or a missing boater on the Great Lakes, here is my advice to you:
Do yourself a favour. Wait another five years or so to get in that kind of desperate trouble. Until then, the government of Canada isn't going to have the kind of resources it should have in place to rescue you.
One more thing. Don't go missing outside office hours. Canada's current search-and-rescue operations tend to go a bit limp on weekends and in the evenings. Urgency takes a breather in the interests of dollars and cents.
Canada can be an unforgiving country for those who go missing. Much of our terrain is rough, remote and seemingly endless. Our waters can be wild and frigid. This is a country whose history is dotted with dramatic search and rescue efforts -- some successful, some not.
We need an effective, robust search-and-rescue capacity, and the current government's Canada First military strategy should be assuring us that we have one. It isn't.
Even this government's Liberal predecessors -- notoriously parsimonious when it came to military spending -- recognized Canadians need an effective search and rescue capacity and in 2003 declared its upgrade a priority. Unfortunately, that government didn't approve the purchase of needed replacement fixed wing aircraft before it left office. The project was still in limbo when an election was called.
Priorities don't disappear when governments change -- or shouldn't. The Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Aircraft Project seemed to in good hands when the Conservatives announced during the campaign that the heart of their military policy would be "Canada First."
If there is anything that is "Canada First," it is maintaining a capable search and rescue capacity for its citizens and others visiting the country.
But then the new government expanded Canada's commitment in Afghanistan, which has turned out to be a much more expensive proposition than expected.
As a result -- shhh!! -- the Canada First policy has become a Canada Second policy, perhaps for the next five years, perhaps for much longer.
Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has ordered a review of Canada's Search and Rescue capacity in the wake of growing doubts about the government's claims that Canada will not run short of fixed wing aircraft to provide adequate Search and Rescue.
Fixed-wing aircraft are essential to Search and Rescue. They can go farther and faster than helicopters and keep the situation in hand while helicopters, ships or ground vehicles are en route. Most of the fixed wing aircraft the Canadian Forces has been using for search and rescue in recent years -- Buffaloes and Hercules -- are old.
The government announced purchases of 17 new Hercules in June 2006, but these will initially be needed in Afghanistan and will not be available for search and rescue in Canada until our commitment in Afghanistan ends in 2010 -- if it does end then.
The government claims it will make more of the current fleet of ungrounded Hercules available for search and rescue by purchasing C17s and C130Js for moving troops and equipment over long distances, an argument that has a degree of truth to it. But those Hercules are going to require more and more maintenance -- like the infamous Sea King Helicopters that spent many hours in the shop for every hour they spent in the air.
Meanwhile, skimping on search and rescue makes responses to potential tragedies more dangerous on weekends. While search-and-rescue squadrons must be ready to fly within 30 minutes of any emergency during daytime working hours from Monday to Friday, the maximum response time is two hours in the evening hours and on weekends.
The Canadian Press recently reported that the Department of National Defence has estimated that as much as $2 billion would have to be added to DND's budget to ensure a 30-minute response capacity around the clock, seven days a week.
Canada needs a well-equipped military to support its troops in Afghanistan. It also needs a well-equipped military to protect Canadians at home.
Sooner or later a Canadian government is going to have to recognize that we Canadians are spending far less on our military capacity than most other reasonable mid-sized countries. At home or abroad, there is a price to pay for that.
Senator Colin Kenny is Chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. He can be reached via email at [email protected]
© The Calgary Herald 2007
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=751dcb20-f093-4b78-86b5-127afdeddaa0
