MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 12 Apr 12
- Budget 2012 We’ll see if veterans’ programs are affected now that there’ll be fewer staff around to administer them “Veterans Affairs Canada will cut a total of 804 jobs from its department countrywide over the next three years, including 232 from the headquarters in Charlottetown. This news came Wednesday after more than 5,900 civil servants from numerous federal departments were given notice their positions will be affected by federal cuts. The 804 imminent job losses at Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) includes 500 identified last year after the government’s strategic review that saw the department lose $226 million from its budget ….”
- “The federal government is stationing another helicopter in Labrador after weeks of protests calling for improved military search and rescue there following the death of Burton Winters, a teenager who was lost in the area. The Department of National Defence says three CH146 Griffons will now operate out of the Canadian Forces Base in central Labrador ….” More here (from DND), here, here
- “An anti-malarial drug that has been withdrawn from routine use by the U.S. military because of concerns about potentially dangerous side-effects continues to be prescribed to Canadian troops serving in malaria-prone regions. The drug, called mefloquine or Lariam, has been associated with psychiatric and physical side-effects that prompted the U.S. military to withdraw it from general use in 2009, but the Canadian Forces continue to prescribe it to soldiers. Side-effects can range from anxiety, vivid nightmares and depression, to hallucinations and psychotic episodes, and the drug has also been blamed for suicides and long-term health problems ….” Some good recent info also in this discussion thread over at Army.ca
- String o’ Defence Minister Announcements (1) Remember the less-than-$6K roof work contract announced in Montreal a few weeks back? It appears the Info-machine thinks the media might be distracted by a whole swack of “contracts awarded” announcements, like: $560,295 worth of work in 4 projects at CFB Halifax
- String o’ Defence Minister Announcements (2) $540,463 worth of work in 4 projects in Ottawa
- String o’ Defence Minister Announcements (3) $507,842 worth of work in 7 projects at Valcartier
- String o’ Defence Minister Announcements (4) $333,702 worth of work in 2 projects (window cleaning, lighting upgrades) at CFB Kingston
- String o’ Defence Minister Announcements (5) $220,174 worth of work in 3 projects at Toronto’s ASU
- String o’ Defence Minister Announcements (6) $33,020 worth of work in 1 project in London
- String o’ Defence Minister Announcements (7) $19,360 worth of work in 3 projects in St. John’s
- F-35 Tug o’ War (1) Compare & contrast “…. While the process to select the F-35 may have been deficient, the result was not. Ignoring or diminishing the F-35’s advantages to hold another competition raises a final parallel with the Sea King replacement program. In 2004, the government selected the Sikorsky Cyclone over the EH-101 in a competitive tender. This was a “paper” helicopter that had yet to fly a single test flight and had no other customers. Eight years later Sikorsky has failed to deliver a single flyable example to Canada and still has yet to win another customer. The program’s budget has nearly doubled its original estimates from $3.1 to $5.7 billion dollars. Political rhetoric and exaggeration replaced reason and fact, which has acted to the detriment of Canada’s public interests, and may well again.”
- F-35 Tug o’ War (2) Mark Collins: “Canadian Total F-35 Costs: Government Figures “hiding in plain site” “
- F-35 Tug o’ War (3) “The Harper government’s move to “press a reset button” on plans to purchase F-35 fighter jets looks to be a PR strategy aimed at defusing a political firestorm. It’s doubtful it means the Conservatives will now take a serious second look at what aircraft should replace Canada’s aging fleet of CF-18s. The reset remark was made last week by an unnamed senior government official right after the release of Auditor-General Michael Ferguson’s report criticizing government’s lack of candour regarding F-35 costs. But this week Defence Minister Peter MacKay is telling any reporter who’ll listen that the cabinet had always been aware of the F-35s’ full price tag. The auditor-general’s criticism, MacKay pointed out, is merely con-fusion over what ought to have been included in those cost figures and the time period covered by the estimates. In choosing the F-35s, MacKay says, he was aiming to give military men and women the best possible equipment ….”
- F-35 Tug o’ War (4) “…. If we are to accept the conclusions in the report from the auditor general – and we note that Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself has said several times that he does accept those conclusions – then we must accept the fact that, as early as 2010, the government knew that the costs to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets were substantially higher than the estimates they provided to Parliament, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and, by extension to the Canadian people. The PBO estimated in October 2010 that the F-35 program would be roughly $30 billion over 30 years. That sure sounds like a lot of money, but so is $16 or $17 billion over 20 years – the estimate the Department of National Defence was providing two years ago. So either way it’s a lot of money. What was to be gained by going with the lowball figure? Would the political opposition to the acquisition of F-35s been any less strident? I doubt it. And the Conservatives would have plowed ahead in any event. Indeed, you’ve probably heard Conservatives say that spending $1 billion a year for 30 years for new fighter jets is roughly equal to the $1 billion a year for, well, forever that we’re spending on the CBC’s annual subsidy ….”
- Afghanistan (1) “During the decade that Canadian soldiers spent fighting and dying in places like Kandahar and Kabul, our theatre creators were noticeably quiet about the Afghan elephant in the room …. The next 12 months will see the premiere of more plays inspired by Canada’s involvement in the NATO-led mission than we have seen in the past 10 years. Following Evan Webber and Frank Cox-O’Connell’s ice breaker, Little Iliad, currently playing at Vancouver’s Anderson Street Space, the upcoming theatre season will see no fewer than three major works on the subject: George F. Walker’s Dead Metaphor, about an Afghanistan War vet returning to home to North America; Hannah Moscovitch’s This Is War, a fictionalized version of a real incident involving Canadian Forces in 2008; and Christopher Morris and Jonathan Garfinkel’s Petawawa, an ambitious international collaboration that aims to dramatize the effects of the war on all sides ….”
- Afghanistan (2) “On March 15, 2012 the Canadian civilian police contingent in Afghanistan held a medal parade on the grounds of the Embassy of Canada in Kabul. This event was the first of its kind to be held at the Embassy, marking the transition from a military engagement to a diplomatic one. Several civilian police officers who were nearing the end of their 12-month missions in Afghanistan were awarded the Operational Service Medal (OSM) ….”
- Way Up North Canada, Denmark a step closer to solving the Hans Island dispute? “Canada and Denmark appear close to agreement in their festering territorial dispute over Hans Island, with an amicable plan for both countries to split ownership of the tiny, barren rock in the Arctic being put forward. A plan to divide the island — a 1.3 square kilometre rock between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Greenland, a self-governing territory under the Danish crown — through the middle would give Canada a second foreign land border and settle a spat that captured international attention as much for its absurdity as its potential seriousness. The position taken by bi-national negotiators is to connect the 1.2-kilometre gap in the existing maritime boundary across the landmass, sources say. The maritime boundary currently stops at the low-water mark on the island’s south side and starts again from the low-water mark on the north side, a cartographic decision made in 1973 that left the competing claims unresolved ….” A bit more here
- KAL Flight 72 (1) “Authorities on Wednesday inspected a Korean Air jetliner at a military base in westernmost Canada after an anonymous caller said a bomb had been planted on the plane. Korean Air flight 72 from Vancouver bound for Seoul was diverted to the Comox airbase on Vancouver Island overnight, and escorted by two US fighter planes. The South Korean flag carrier said all 146 passengers and crew were screened and put up at two hotels on Vancouver Island for the night while baggage and luggage were checked. “Upon the completion of baggage/cargo check, an inspection of the aircraft will be conducted,” said a statement. Thereafter, a new departure time would be determined ….”
- KAL Flight 72 (2) “Passengers of Korean Airlines flight 72 were kept in the dark about the bomb threat that diverted their plane Tuesday to a Comox military base, even as they were frisked and searched on the tarmac. The Korean Airlines captain had provided few details to the 134 passengers of why the flight en route to Seoul from Vancouver was turned around, simply saying it was a security issue. The flight has since departed ….”
- Did someone drop the ball for the commemoration of Vimy in Ottawa?
- Chester Hull, R.I.P. “A decorated Belleville resident, who was once second-in-command of Canada’s military, has died. Chester Hull, a retired lieutenant-general and airman, died April 9 less than two weeks before his 93rd birthday. Born April 19, 1919 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Lt.-Gen. Hull was educated in Vancouver and Ottawa and Kingston. Enlisting with Ottawa’s Cameron Highlanders, he remained with the regiment until 1936. He was the top cadet and battalion sergeant-major at Kingston’s Royal Military College. One month after Canada declared war on Germany, the future senior officer was among the RMC students who graduated early in October 1939 to serve in the Second World War. Lt.-Gen. Hull flew bombers with the Royal Canadian Air Force and earned the distinguished flying cross for skill and valour. He became a group captain while still 25 years old ….”
