Sajjan: Military SAR won’t be Privatized

In what appears to be one of the fastes turn-around's in defence policy - less than 24 hours after the Liberal Defence Review announced that it would consider privatizing Search and Rescue (SAR) in Canada - Defence Minister Sajjan told the House of Commons yesterday; that no - SAR will not be privatized; as the CAF plays too critical a role in SAR in Canada. 

Here is Lee Berthiaume, Ottawa Citizen |article: 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan “The Canadian Armed Forces play a critical role in search and rescue,” Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan told the House of Commons on Tuesday.

OTTAWA — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has headed off a potentially divisive debate by declaring the Liberal government will not privatize military search and rescue.

Sajjan made the comments Tuesday in response to an NDP question, after the Citizen revealed that the government’s defence review included questions about whether there were “alternatives” to having the military conduct search and rescue missions.

“The previous government might have been looking at privatizing search and rescue,” Sajjan told the House of Commons. “But I can assure the member that this government is not, because the Canadian Armed Forces play a critical role in search and rescue.”

Sajjan said last week everything was on the table as he launched consultations with the public, parliamentarians and defence experts on how the military should be structured for the future.

Related
Liberals considering privatizing search and rescue operations as part of Canadian Forces review
Harjit Sajjan defends Canada’s military budget after Donald Trump slams NATO ‘free riders’
Liberals ‘absolutely’ committed to military but it needs a tighter focus, defence minister says

The government released a 36-page document asking for feedback on what the military should — and should not — be doing. One section focuses on the military’s role in search and rescue, and asks if there are “models for alternative service delivery that could be explored.”

“Given the range of other actors engaged in this activity and the small proportion of rescues that require CAF assets,” the document reads, “a valid question is: what role should the CAF have in search and rescue?”

The Liberals have said their goal for the defence review is a “leaner, more agile” military that is better able to respond to the challenges facing Canada, but others fear the review is intended to identify ways the government can cut costs. The review is expected to culminate in a new defence policy in early 2017.

The previous Conservative government raised the idea of privatizing military search and rescue five years ago, before letting it die amid a public outcry. Liberal MP Judy Foote was among those who said she was “appalled” by the idea.

Foote, who hails from Newfoundland and Labrador, is now the minister of public services and procurement, which oversees military equipment purchases. Her department is managing a $3.1-billion project to replace the air force’s ancient search-and-rescue planes.

Liberals Are Consider Privatizing SAR in Canada

By: LEE BERTHIAUME, Ottawa Citizen 

An RCAF CH-149 Cormorant helicopter on exercising with a Canadian Coast Guard vessel.

The Liberal government is considering whether the military should continue to be involved in search-and-rescue missions, or rely instead on private companies and other alternatives to save Canadians in distress.

The idea has been raised as part of the government’s defence review, and is sure to stoke strong reactions both inside the military and across the country.

The previous Conservative government aired a similar proposal five years ago, before letting it quietly die.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said last week that everything was on the table as he launched consultations with the public, parliamentarians and defence experts on how the military should be structured for the future. Consultations will continue until the end of July, with a new defence policy to be released in early 2017.

As part of those consultations, the government released a 36-page document asking for feedback on what the military should — and should not — be doing. One section focuses specifically on the military’s role in search and rescue, and asks if there are “models for alternative service delivery that could be explored.”

The Canadian Armed Forces responds to more than 9,000 distress calls each year, the document says. But only about 1,000 actually require military search-and-rescue helicopters or airplanes. The rest involve co-ordinating other government departments, volunteers and private companies hired to help. The Conservatives raised the possibility of privatizing search-and-rescue operations in a meeting with representatives from various aerospace firms in 2011. The idea didn’t get far, however, after a public outcry.

HMCS Saskatoon near Esquimalt, British Columbia and An RCAF CH-149 Cormorant helicopter that is practicing personnel transfers.

Among those who spoke out against the proposal was Liberal MP Judy Foote, who wrote in a blog post at the time that she was “appalled by the government’s notice to companies that the government would be exploring the privatization of searchand-rescue operations.”

Foote, who hails from Newfoundland and Labrador, is now the minister of public services and procurement, which oversees military equipment purchases. Her department is currently managing a $3.1-billion project to replace the air force’s ancient search-and-rescue planes.

Paul Ives, mayor of Comox, B.C., which is home to the air force’s search-and-rescue school as well as one of its search-and-rescue squadrons, said he was surprised to learn that privatizing the service was being considered.

A Canadian Coast Guard communications centre is slated to close in the Vancouver Island community next month, and Ives said there would be an economic impact if search and rescue were privatized as well. But he was more skeptical that private companies could provide the same level of service as the military.

“Those guys who are rappelling down to rescue you are professionals to the nth degree and they’re a very proud part of the military,” he said.

An RCAF CC-146 Griffon helicopter waits to take off as CAF personnel from 424 (Transport and Rescue) Squadron conducted a search and rescue (SAR) during exercise TIGEREX

“I wouldn’t want to be out in the wilderness somewhere expecting somebody to come in on a rescue mission who’s working on a contract basis and worrying about, ‘Can we really do this? Will it cost us more than it’s worth?’ ”

York University professor Martin Shadwick, who has written extensively on military search and rescue, said the actual monetary savings of privatization or moving the service somewhere else such as the Coast Guard would likely be very small.

At the same time there would be a number of intangible costs, he said, such as damage to military morale and the Force’s links with average Canadians given that search and rescue is one of the military’s most highprofile activities.

“So there’s a whole lot of things that often don’t fit nicely on a balance sheet,” he said. “Getting rid of it completely, I don’t think it’s in the broader national interest.”

103 SAR Sqn Trains with Icelandic Coast Guard

Written by: JDM, Canadian Forces Dispatch author
Last Updated: February 10, 2016

A RCAF CH-149 Cormorant SAR Helicopter. (Undated DND Photo) 

As Arctic nations come together after the reaffirmation of the Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement late last year, the RCAF's 103 Squadron has landed in Iceland to train with the Icelandic Coast Guard.

Unlike many other nations, Canada's areal search and rescue is not conducted by the Coast Guard, but by the RCAF; largely for budgetary reasons. The aerial Search and Rescue (SAR) is conducted by the RCAF using CH-149 Cormorant helicopters and Fixed-Wing CC-115 Buffalo aircraft.

103 Search and Rescue Squadron is located at 9 wing Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador. Members from 103 Squadron are deployed to Iceland from the 9-12 of February 2016.

 
Training will involve multiple scenarios with the Canadian CH-149 Cormorant, the Icelandic Coast Guard vessel Thor, and the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue also known as ICE-SAR. 

Icelandic Coast Guard vessel Thor (Photo: Naval-Technology)

The RCAF released the following images after the exercise concluded. More images can be seen here

CH-149 Cormorant helicopter to perform a mountain rescue scenario during a 

Joint SAR Exercise held in Iceland on February 10, 2016. 

CH-149 Cormorant helicopter hoist Sergeant Sean Daniell with a member from the Iceland Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR) and his dog Joey in Neskaupstadur, Iceland during a Joint SAR Exercise on February 9, 2016.

FWSAR Bids Due Monday

Written by David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen, Defence Watch 

After more than a decade of delays, aerospace firms will submit their bids next week to provide Canada’s air force with a new fleet of search-and-rescue planes.

So far, three companies have said they plan to bid on the $3.1 billion project.

The bids are due Monday, Pierre-Alain Bujold, spokesman for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said in an email.

Aerospace companies will submit bids proposing a combination of aircraft and in-service support to replace the Canadian military’s existing fleet of Buffalo and Hercules aircraft used for search and rescue, he said.

The Buffalos, first purchased in 1967, are key to search and rescue on the west coast and in parts of the Rockies. Those aircraft are already facing mechanical and technical problems and several years ago, the air force had difficulty obtaining spare propellers.

Airbus Defence and Space plans to offer Canada its C-295 aircraft while Alenia is bidding its C-27J plane.

The Brazilian aerospace firm Embraer has said it will propose its KC-390 aircraft.

Canada released its request for proposals from industry on March 31.

But the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces first announced the project to buy a new fleet of search-and-rescue aircraft in 2004.

The Conservatives reannounced that project as part of their Canada First Defence Strategy. In 2008, then-defence minister Peter MacKay called the project a top priority and vowed to buy a new fleet of planes by early 2009. That never happened.

In 2011, DND and the Canadian Forces again noted the project was to be one of their top procurement goals over the next three years but the acquisition has continued to limp along.

On Tuesday, a report from the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and the University of Calgary blamed delays in equipment purchases on the turnover of ministers and senior military staff as well as on delays caused by federal elections.

But aerospace industry representatives say that wasn’t the case with the proposed purchase of the fixed-wing search-and-rescue planes. Shortly after the project was launched, various aerospace firms accused the Canadian air force of rigging the contract to favour Alenia’s C-27J. Those accusations, in turn, caused years of delays as government officials painstakingly tried to ensure the process was seen to be fair.

Senior air force officers denied there was any favouritism at play.

But Alan Williams, the Department of National Defence’s former assistant deputy minister for materiel, later testified before a parliamentary committee that the Canadian air force had designed the requirements for the original search-and-rescue aircraft project to favor the C-27J, prompting the complaints to government from companies.

In 2014, the Citizen obtained DND documents that also blamed some of the delay on the Conservative government’s freeze on hiring staff. That resulted in a shortage of personnel in the search-and-rescue aircraft project management office, according to the records.

DND officials acknowledged the freeze had created some problems but noted that it was only temporary and the situation has improved.

During the election campaign, the Liberals promised that their government would “prioritize the acquisition of cost-effective search and rescue aircraft.”

The project originally envisioned buying 17 aircraft. But that has been changed and it will be up to aerospace firms to submit in their bids the numbers of aircraft they believe are needed for Canada to handle the needed search-and-rescue capability.

Eelction 2015: NDP Promise to Maintain Spending; Increase Peacekeeping

As the NDP continues to slide in the polls - they are releasing their partial Defence policy plan.

If elected on October 19th (which seems less and less likely, daily) the NDP promise to maintain stable defence spending (but provided no details on what that number is) and plan on returning Canada to the Peacekeeping table. The NDP eye to make Canada the top troop contributor among Western nations in a few years - all according to Murray Brewster of the Canadian Press.

I won't even go into the Peacekeeping aspect of the promise - as my regular readers know - Canada's Peacekeeping image is a Myth that has stood for too long. I am not against it, or the UN, but only in the right circumstances.

Also included in the NDPs Defence policy is a very pricey ($$$$) around the clock response time for Canada's Search and Rescue Squadrons. The problem with such a proposal - the RCAF has long said that such a plan is too costly and labour intensive - let alone the fact that the RCAF does not operate enough aircraft for such an endeavor in our vast landscape - especially in the North. The NDP claim that this would move Canada into the international standards with regards to SAR.

While Mulcair said earlier in September that the party would not kill the F-35; the party admits that the F-35 does not fit into the Defence strategy it sees for Canada; and such a review would discover the same thing.

The biggest issue is the "maintain" stable defence spending. The Parliamentary Budget Office says that the $20 Billion budget for the Department of National Defence needs to be increased to maintain current troop and equipment levels. The NDP have only said they would maintain a budget for our existing commitments - not new ones or possibly future ones.

To increase transparency throughout DND, the NDP have said they would also create an Inspector Generals Office.