New Canadian Shipbuilding Strategy

[Colin Parkinson]

Colin: Davie is currently designing to build two ferries for the Federal government under the Shipbuilding Strategy.

Remind me again why a province gets to have the feds build them ferries?

 

[suffolkowner]

Remind me again why a province gets to have the feds build them ferries?

constitution for PEI ?

 

[dapaterson]

Remind me again why a province gets to have the feds build them ferries?

BC ferries are internal to BC.

Ferries to NL are between provinces.

 

[MacNav63]

BC ferries are internal to BC.

Ferries to NL are between provinces.

Exactly. Inter-provincial transportation is a federal responsibility in the constitution, which is why Marine Atlantic is a federal crown corporation. That has led over the years to a couple of interesting angles being played by the provinces. When the feds decided to build the bridge to PEI to replace the ferry from New Brunswick (which involved amending the constitution) PEI insisted on a federal commitment to maintain funding for the ferry to Nova Scotia. And there is no ferry from mainland Quebec to the Magdalene Islands, which the province would have to pay for, only from PEI, which the feds pay for.

 

[dapaterson]

Clearly the solution is for Saltspring Island to separate and become its own province, and route all BC Ferries routes through there, nationalizing them under Federal funding.

Branch plan: Make Saltspring part of Saskatchewan, giving them ocean access and making Islanders part of the rich cultural heritage of Corner Gas.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Clearly the solution is for Saltspring Island to separate and become its own province, and route all BC Ferries routes through there, nationalizing them under Federal funding.

Branch plan: Make Saltspring part of Saskatchewan, giving them ocean access and making Islanders part of the rich cultural heritage of Corner Gas.

Keep this up and you are going to be appointed Grandmaster of the Rhino party

 

[lenaitch]

Clearly the solution is for Saltspring Island to separate and become its own province, and route all BC Ferries routes through there, nationalizing them under Federal funding.

Branch plan: Make Saltspring part of Saskatchewan, giving them ocean access and making Islanders part of the rich cultural heritage of Corner Gas.

Or, alternatively, give the island to Alberta. It would give them the tidewater they covet and save them from annexing NWT (which someone said they had a right to do).

 

[dapaterson]

Or, alternatively, give the island to Alberta. It would give them the tidewater they covet and save them from annexing NWT (which someone said they had a right to do).

The one thing BC and SK share is a profound dislike and distrust of AB.

 

[Underway]

They've already expanded the strategy to three shipyards. Who says they couldn't add a fourth one for CDC?

If you build 18 to 20 CDC over a period of 25 years, you are ready for the next iteration by the time you are through with the program, so with that expansion of the fleet, there is room for another yard in the continuous build mode.

Besides, right now, my view is that the first priority for the RCN is to get the replacement and increased number of ORCA type vessels Topshee mentioned because if you are going to need to crew more ships, the rate at which we now produce watch-keepers is way too slow.

They are producing NWO's at a record rate right now. However they changed all the training to do so. You're OFP when you finish your MARS 4 or whatever its called. Matching all the other trades in the CAF. And they've significantly streamlined the post BWK process. No more NOPQ boards. They you go do OOD and BWK. You get streamed into three options. Information Warfare/Management, Staff stream (dry stream for operations) or Seagoing Operations (those are not the names but the functions).

Seagoing engineering is going a similar direction with no more at sea phase 6. You get your OOD after a very attenuated Applications course, and go straight to shore support management of the fleet. When you are ready for what used to be your A/HOD you do a two year stint (instead of 1 year) as an engineering Divisional Officer (one of two per flavour of engineering). That's your A/HOD and PHVI sea time to get you ready for HOD. Which is now a LCdr position post Div O tour.

*you'll note I'm not listing any pros/cons, its too new and I haven't had a good sit down with the training staff or been on ship to see the products. Some good some bad, but its not like we have options at this point. We're short ships and people.

 

[dapaterson]

If dry stream is "never go to sea" then the CAF needs to reign in the RCN - the technical term for a MARS / NWO who never goes to sea is a civilian, and those positions need to be appropriately changed.

 

[Lumber]

If dry stream is "never go to sea" then the CAF needs to reign in the RCN - the technical term for a MARS / NWO who never goes to sea is a civilian, and those positions need to be appropriately changed.

So, the "Air Operations Officer" trade should just be civilians as well, you would say?

 

[Halifax Tar]

Nothing really to add, but great point:

If dry stream is "never go to sea" then the CAF needs to reign in the RCN - the technical term for a MARS / NWO who never goes to sea is a civilian, and those positions need to be appropriately changed.

Great counter point:

So, the "Air Operations Officer" trade should just be civilians as well, you would say?

Just to clarify, Eng Dept HODs will now be LCdrs ?

Seagoing engineering is going a similar direction with no more at sea phase 6. You get your OOD after a very attenuated Applications course, and go straight to shore support management of the fleet. When you are ready for what used to be your A/HOD you do a two year stint (instead of 1 year) as an engineering Divisional Officer (one of two per flavour of engineering). That's your A/HOD and PHVI sea time to get you ready for HOD. Which is now a LCdr position post Div O tour.

 

[dapaterson]

So, the "Air Operations Officer" trade should just be civilians as well, you would say?

The CAF writ large suffers from a uniform fetish. Many officer trades have grown to the point where little to no operational experience occurs. Given the significant costs associated with CAF personnel, and GoC caps on the number of CAF personnel, strong limits on CAF establishments to focus attention where military personnel are required, not necessarily desired, are necessary.

There is a need for ship to shore ratio. But if the same folks are always ashore then it's not working as intended.

 

[Halifax Tar]

The CAF writ large suffers from a uniform fetish. Many officer trades have grown to the point where little to no operational experience occurs. Given the significant costs associated with CAF personnel, and GoC caps on the number of CAF personnel, strong limits on CAF establishments to focus attention where military personnel are required, not necessarily desired, are necessary.

This is being noticed in the Naval Log world. The delta in operational experience between our commissioned and non folks is getting wider by the minute.