• Thanks for stopping by. Logging in to a registered account will remove all generic ads. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.

Will the C17s Make it to the Ramp?

Status
Not open for further replies.
And now everyone is jumping in on the issue of regional benefits .......
MacKay joins call for Boeing to spread benefits
DANIEL LEBLANC

>From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA - Foreign Minister Peter MacKay has joined the intense lobbying to persuade Boeing Co. to spread out the economic benefits
flowing from the military's planned $3.4-billion purchase of C-17 cargo aircraft.

Industry and government sources said U.S.-based Boeing wants to direct about 30 per cent of the benefits to Ontario and 20 per cent to the
West. Less than 10 per cent has been allocated to the Atlantic provinces so far. While some benefits have yet to be allocated, Quebec would likely be
left with 30 per cent.

Quebec politicians, including Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, have complained that Quebec's share is way too small, given the province's 55- to 60-per-cent share of Canada's aerospace industry.

Last night, Radio-Canada reported that Mr. Fortier wants Quebec to have more than 40 per cent of the benefits and that he has recently blocked the purchase of the four planes because Boeing refused to oblige. To obtain the C-17 contract, Boeing has to pledge to buy supplies and services worth the exact value of the purchase in Canada. This package of regional benefits can be spent to build or maintain the Boeing C-17s, or any other current and future Boeing aircraft.

Mr. MacKay, a Nova Scotia MP who is also the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, is pushing to increase the benefits directed to the Atlantic provinces. "It's not only Quebec ministers who are worried, it's also in the Atlantic," a senior federal official said. "Boeing has done very little in the Atlantic." An industry source added, "Mr. MacKay is doing just as much lobbying to ensure that Atlantic Canada get a fair chunk of the industry regional benefits."

The industry source said it's unclear whether Atlantic Canada has the capacity to take in a large portion of the work. The federal government largely lost the power to steer contract work to specific parts of the country in 1994 when it signed the Agreement on Internal Trade with the provinces. But Ottawa invoked a national security exemption in the C-17 purchase, which effectively removes the contract from the agreement's reach.

Mr. Fortier, who is also the political minister for Montreal, has warned he will not sign the contract if Quebec does not obtain the largest share of the benefits. Quebec's Economic Development Minister, Raymond Bachand, said the Canadian economy as a whole would benefit if his province obtained the
lion's share of the benefits.

"From a Canadian standpoint, the international economic battles are waged around industrial clusters. "That's how we can win. In the aerospace industry, it happens to be in Quebec," Mr. Bachand said in an interview. "If this were in the automotive sector, the industrial cluster would be
in Ontario." Mr. Bachand urged the federal government to refuse a deal that does not acknowledge Quebec's share of the aerospace industry, saying the
current proposal from Boeing is "unacceptable."

Mr. Fortier is seen as the lead advocate for Quebec industries, although the regional-benefits file is technically in the hands of Industry Minister Maxime Bernier. If Mr. Bernier and Mr. Fortier cannot come to an agreement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper could be forced to choose between helping the
Quebec industry and delaying the deal, or obtaining the aircraft from Boeing as quickly as possible. The matter is set to be discussed by a cabinet committee tomorrow afternoon.

Boeing has told the government that it can guarantee its price only until the end of the month.


 
I think it's just about time for Mr Harper to put on his pants and wade out on this topic.
 
Actually, the minister from Montreal has stated that Quebec should get 60% of the spin offs since that province has 60% of the country's aerospace industry.

Never mind that it got that when Winnipeg got boned for the CF 18 project.  But hey, Go Jets, Go!
 
(WOG - that's how they got to the 60% level)

PM - check please!
 
In addition to Manitoba's Prov. government raising concerns about this deal after being shafted on the F-18 deal, there's this from Andrew Coyne (who is not the concervatives favourite reporter)


Senator Porkier
Article Link

I give up.[/url]
The delivery of Canada's first military cargo aircraft faces delays while Boeing is embroiled in a backroom battle with Public Works Minister Michael Fortier over Quebec's share of economic benefits flowing from the $3.4-billion purchase.

The negotiations, which were scheduled to close last month, are running into overtime and jeopardizing the plan to deliver the first of four C-17 aircraft to the Canadian Forces in June.

To obtain the contract, U.S.-based Boeing Co. has to pledge to buy supplies and services worth the exact value of the purchase in Canada. This package of regional benefits can be spent directly to build or maintain the Boeing C-17s, or any other current and future Boeing aircraft.

With billions at stake, Boeing is facing political pressure to invest heavily in Quebec, where 55 per cent to 60 per cent of Canada's aerospace industry is located.

But the company plans to spend only 30 per cent of the economic benefits in the politically sensitive province, while directing the rest to other provinces, industry and government sources said...

A number of Quebec businesses and politicians -- including Mr. Fortier -- are fighting to boost the province's share of the regional benefits.

He hasn't publicly set out a target for Quebec's share of these economic benefits, but he is staunchly defending the industry that is mainly located in the Montreal area. Mr. Fortier, an unelected senator, will be running in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, just west of Montreal, in the next election. As Public Works Minister, he has the final responsibility for signing the contract.
In the twenty-odd years since the CF-18 debacle, Conservatives have apparently learned nothing: about economics, about political morality, about playing fire with regional jealousies.
More on link
 
A post at The Torch by Paul Synnott:

They just don't get it
http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/2007/01/they-just-dont-get-it.html

Mark
Ottawa

 
A few more political inputs in today's Globe and Mail
24 Jan 2007

Doer urges Harper not to let ‘pork-barrel politics' hijack Boeing contract
Canadian Press

WINNIPEG — Manitoba Premier Gary Doer is urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to let “pork-barrel politics” hijack a contract to build new military cargo planes.

Mr. Doer said Wednesday he's surprised and frustrated by a report published this week that says federal Public Works Minister Michel Fortier won't sign the contracts unless Quebec gets most of the benefits.

Mr. Doer says the situation seems like an unpleasant flashback to 1986, when the federal Conservative government chose a Quebec firm over a Manitoba company to maintain CF-18 fighter jets.

Canadair Ltd. of Montreal beat out Bristol Aerospace Ltd of Winnipeg even though Bristol's bid was lower and judged technically superior by a panel of civil servants.

Mr. Doer said the decision on where to build the new C-17s should be based only on who puts forward the best proposal.

“I actually believe Stephen Harper is not going to let the situation deteriorate to where pork-barrel politics takes over from defence-contract merit,” said Mr. Doer.

“It's good for Manitoba, it's good for Boeing and Quebec knows it can compete on the basis of merit.”

The new C-17s are supposed to be delivered by June 2008 but The Globe and Mail reported last week the delivery has been delayed because Boeing and the federal government can't agree on economic spinoffs from the $3.4-billion contract.

Mr. Fortier refused to comment, but in a letter sent to The Globe and Mail Wednesday the minister denied saying that Quebec must get a greater share of the contract's regional benefits.

“When billions of taxpayer dollars are given out to aerospace and defence suppliers, it is also the government's job to see that economic benefits are returned to Canadians and the Canadian aerospace and defence industry,” wrote Mr. Fortier.

“No deal is concluded until it is signed — that is until the government is satisfied that the purchase was done properly, that Canadians are getting the right benefits, and that the purchase will serve the interests of the country.”

The federal government is negotiating with Boeing to buy four C-17 cargo planes. The company's price guarantee expires at the end of the month, meaning Harper could soon be forced to step in and choose between delaying the deal to help the Quebec industry or securing the contract at the current price.

The Quebec government is urging Ottawa to remain strong at the table to get the maximum economic benefits from the contract.

The province is home to the majority of Canada's aerospace industry and the base of Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B), one of Boeing's competitors.

It is also considered a key battleground in the next federal election and the Conservatives want to shore up support there to bolster their 10 seats.

Boeing's only Canadian plant is in Winnipeg, making a variety of airplane components.

Mr. Doer says Manitoba and Quebec companies should be able to fairly compete with each other.

“We're not afraid of competition, why is Quebec?”

 
So Mr. Fortier, a civil servant who is supposed to act in the best interests of Canada and the Government of Canada has publicly stated that he will not sign an acquisition if his province of origin does'nt get the lions share of the work in this contract.

In the military we would call this "dereliction of duty".

How can one make such a statement and not be sacked?
 
Mr Harper?

care to wade in on this subject?
 
geo said:
Mr Harper?

care to wade in on this subject?

According to the Globe and Mail, the cabinet called Mr Fornier on the carpet and told him that the market will decide where the spending goes and that the deal will be finalized by the end of the month.

Link:
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20070127/BOEING27/national/national/national/2/2/18/
 
The number one purchase killer of the Canadian Forces has always been the self righteous Politician. From the Ross rifle to those cancelled helicopters so desperately needed our fine Political opportunists never let us down. I suppose that's to be expected from the dozens of of White paper studies the arm chair Generals and party hacks have conjured up over the decades. I just wish they would get it through their heads that a  "Flanking", is not Flemish for spanking, and a "Pincer Movement", is not a quite dead lobster. The shame.....oh the shame.
 
FSTO said:
According to the Globe and Mail, the cabinet called Mr Fornier on the carpet and told him that the market will decide where the spending goes and that the deal will be finalized by the end of the month.

Link:
http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/PEstory/LAC/20070127/BOEING27/national/national/national/2/2/18/

Thank goodness....


Matthew.  :salute:
 
  The proof is the proof, And the proof is in the proof, And that's the proof !
           
                               
 
what drives me crazy is that the politicians (Conservatives AND Liberals) let things come to a boil, wait for critical troubles to develop AND THEN they wade in to fix the problem that coulda been fixed quietly long before it became a problem in the 1st place.
 
"It's been approved," a source said yesterday, adding that last-minute negotiations are under way to finalize the deal by the end of the month.

This is good news.
Including today, the 29th, that's only 3 working days left for the PMO to close this deal before Boeing hikes up the price.  :o
 
We're down to the last quarter mile
... "willy makeit" is leading by a nose... followed by "betty won`t" & "woopsie didn't" is coming up on the outside.........

(It's a horse race & anything is possible.)
 
photo finish
.... keep your wager stubs ladies & gents, it's a close one.  To close to call............
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top