$84B plan to replace Canada’s warships is ‘ludicrous’
Jack Layton #JackLayton
Re: Estimated cost of warship fleet rises to $84B thanks to delays, inflation: PBO, Oct. 28
In the 2008 Canadian National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, $26 billion was planned for the construction of the 15 vessels of the Surface Combatant (CSC) Project, with the British Type 26 design being selected for the ships. In 2017, the cost jumped to $62 billion. The cost ramped up to $70 billion in 2019, after Canada selected Lockheed Martin’s design for the ship, and then to $77 billion in 2021 and now sits at $84 billion, more than $5 billion per ship.
The changes to the original Type 26 design have added 900 tons to the ship, and obviously caused some of the increased costs. The ship is now projected to displace 9,400 tons, which is almost double the 4,700 tons of the current Halifax-class frigates. Apparently changes to the design had to be made to satisfy Canada’s unique military requirements. But surely our requirements are not so unique as to require changes so drastic they would multiply the cost by three? It is more likely features were added that were not considered in the original plan.
Production of the first ship is scheduled to start in 2024, and it will get delivered to the navy in 2031, some nine years from now. The last one, the 15th ship, will not be delivered until 2048, or 26 years from today. Since the project was started in 2008 and the last ship scheduled for 2048, it would have taken the navy 40 years to acquire the 15 ships, at an astronomical cost of $84 billion.
This is a ludicrous project. There are obvious alternatives at a reasonable cost that will not take over 26 years to acquire. There could be a mixed buy of a few Type 26 hulls and smaller less expensive Type 31 light frigates. The Type 31 has a displacement of 5,700 tonnes and is estimated to cost under $1 billion. There is also the example of the U.S. Navy which selected the French FREMM design for their new frigates. In 2020, they issued a contract to build their first new Constellation frigate for about US$1 billion and it has a displacement of 7,000 tons. Surely Canadian naval requirements cannot be so different than those of the U.S.A.? Other more reasonably priced options need to be considered.
Roger Cyr, (Retired naval commander), Victoria
‘A saner approach to governance’ in Quebec
Re: Quebec cabinet signals focus on economy, rather than culture, André Pratte, Oct. 29
President Dwight Eisenhower said that he made only two mistakes during his time in office and they were both sitting on the Supreme Court. Judges, once appointed, can‘t be removed.
Premier François Legault is not subject to that limitation. He has implicitly acknowledged two errors of his first administration by removing Simon Jolin-Barrette from the French language portfolio as well as Jean Boulet from immigration. Both ministers had twinned portfolios in the first mandate, Jolin-Barette with justice and the French language, and Boulet with labour and immigration. Each minister, in his own way, revealed the ugly side of Quebec nationalism in his approach to language and immigration.
Decoupling those ministries was a necessary step to a saner approach to governance. Quebec needs more immigrants and greater respect for those already here. And justice, as Milton said, must be tempered with mercy. Not tempted by language politics.
Howard Greenfield, Montreal
Why can’t Canadians be protected by safer trains?
Re: Via Rail trains so decrepit they need ‘buffer cars’ in case of a collision, Chris Selley, Oct. 27
In spring 2007, in preparation for the Railway Safety Act Review Committee’s public hearing in Vancouver, I scanned the Transport Canada and Transportation Safety Board websites.
I was shocked to discover that a “movement exceeds limit of authority” incident occurs about every three days on a railway track somewhere in Canada.
This type of incident occurs when a locomotive, a rail car, or a piece of track maintenance equipment goes beyond the place where it was supposed to stop. At best, nothing bad happens and the vehicle returns to its proper location. The worst consequence would be a derailment. Recall the Lac-Mégantic disaster of July 6, 2013, when a derailment of runaway tank cars carrying highly flammable liquid resulted in an explosion and fire that killed 47 people. Another worst-case scenario would be the side-swiping of another train or a head-on collision as occurred near Hinton, Alta., on Feb. 8, 1986, killing 23.
For decades, the Transportation Safety Board has been recommending the installation of Positive Train Control technology to reduce the occurrence of “movement exceeds limit of authority” incidents. When will the federal minister of transport, Omar Alghabra, heed the TSB by regulating the Class 1 railroads to implement PTC? We’re on the cusp of self-driving cars, so why can’t Canadians be protected by smart trains? And when will Alghabra listen to the pleas of the train-operating unions for science-based rest schedules?
Derek Wilson, Port Moody, B.C.
P.S.: The buffer car behind the VIA locomotive will do nothing to protect the head-end train crew in another Hinton-type disaster.
Unfair to fracking
Re: ‘Racial fracking’: How American campus anti-racism programs fuel phoney divides, Lyell Asher, Oct. 26
As a former project manager for over 30 hydraulic fracturing jobs, I object to the pairing of the word fracking with the word racism. The energy industry’s use of hydraulic fracturing is a method of inducing higher activity from a medium of low activity to produce a positive result — enhanced production. Fostering racial divisions converts a medium of generally calm activity into turbulent activity to produce a negative result — hostility. The two outcomes could not be more different.
John P.A. Budreski, Vancouver
Who are the real subversives in Canada?
Re: It’s becoming clear the federal government overreached to shut down Freedom Convoy, John Ivison, Oct. 26
John Ivison writes that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino justified the use of the Emergencies Act “by saying a small, organized group ‘driven by ideology’ was trying to subvert the government. Switch out “the government” with “Canada” and the group he is referring to is the Liberals. What other group in Canada is so ideologically driven that the everyday business of running a country has been subverted to the gospel of woke? Day by day we get less done, go deeper in debt, are further divided, and pursue a paper utopia unable to produce anything, defend its borders or offer succour to the citizenry. Trudeau needs to declare an Emergency Act on himself and his party. They are the subversives.
Larry Baswick, Stratford, Ont.
NDP ‘needs to do some serious soul-searching’
Re: Ludicrous to call the Freedom Convoy an occupation, Rupa Subramanya, Oct. 28
That NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh would continue to prop up the Trudeau Liberals, despite their very obvious abuse of power in invoking the Emergencies Act, is a grave disservice to the Canadian people, who deserve better.
It is also a great disservice to his party, whose support dwindles the longer it remains lapdog to the Trudeau government. The NDP must redefine themselves by choosing a new and worthy leader of a party that is teetering on the brink irrelevancy.
I am by no means a fan of the New Democrats’ dubious politics, but they do serve a purpose as seen under Jack Layton’s leadership. They were the conscience of the House, but with the working class rightfully shifting toward the Conservatives, and extreme leftists shifting toward the Liberals, there’s a good chance the NDP could see their place in the House of Commons obliterated in the next election.
They need to do some serious soul-searching.
Corey Needer, Vaughan, Ont.
Re: Canada’s obsession with trees delves into the absurd, Rex Murphy, Oct. 29
Yes, trees are good.
Even if Canada is one of the most forested countries in the world, massive reforestation and afforestation efforts are essential in the fight against climate change. Trees are a cost-effective natural climate solution. They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen.
But trees are just as important in our cities and towns. Trees help cool our neighbourhoods during increasingly hot summers, soak up water and reduce flooding, and improve our physical and psychological wellbeing.
That’s why Tree Canada and CN Rail’s EcoConnexions — From the Ground Up partnership focuses on planting trees in urban areas. Greening projects are designed to meet the needs of communities. Some naturalization projects plant hundreds of smaller trees, and others prioritize larger ones. Not surprisingly, the older “caliper” trees are more expensive than saplings.
And like everything else worth doing, planting the right tree in the right place takes time and care.
Nicole Hurtubise, CEO, Tree Canada
Justin Trudeau’s costly tastes
Re: Trudeau’s buying himself a populist backlash, Chris Selley, Oct. 30; and Justin Trudeau billed taxpayers $1,000 for ‘drink box water bottle sorta things’, Tristin Hopper, Oct. 24
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s most recent perpetration of Marie Antoinetteism in London, England, must be juxtaposed with the recent report that we taxpayers have been funding his family’s habit of drinking boxed water, running at about $3 per litre. That’s more expensive than carbon-taxed gasoline.
Taxpayers should not be responsible for funding an elected official’s extravagant lifestyle whims. I suppose though that the water in question must make some pretty decent Kool-Aid, which NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has obviously been drinking by the bucketful.
Perry Medicoff, Lisbon, Portugal
Notwithstanding Quebec’s Bill 96
Re: Trudeau tells Ford use of notwithstanding clause is ‘wrong and inappropriate’ in call, Marie-Danielle Smith, Nov. 2
Justin Trudeau has criticized the Ford government for invoking the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to prevent Ontario teachers from going on strike.
Where was the prime minister on invoking the same clause with respect to Quebec’s Bill 96, its new French language law? I believe there are many more English speakers in Quebec than there are teachers in Ontario.
Carl Ravinsky, Montreal
Left and right sides both guilty of extremism
Re: Political extremism fuelled by high levels of illiteracy, Tasha Kheiriddin, Nov. 1
Tasha Kheiriddin is right to condemn violence against U.S. politicians but it’s not only Republican supporters who are to blame. Arguably the most egregious recent act of violence was the left-wing activist and Bernie Sanders supporter who in 2017 fired a rifle at Republican congressmen engaged in a friendly baseball practice at a Washington-area park, wounding GOP Rep. Steve Scalise and five others.
In the current political cycle we have seen New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin attacked on stage by a knife-wielding man, and Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tell abortion-rights demonstrators that Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neal Gorsuch would “pay the price” for having “unleashed the whirlwind” if they overturned Roe v. Wade. There were nightly protests in front of the justices’ private homes and an armed man was arrested in Washington and charged with intending to assassinate Kavanaugh. Meanwhile President Joe Biden characterizes many Americans who dare to oppose him as “semi-fascists.”
Paul Ranalli, Toronto
In defence of Danielle Smith
Re: Danielle Smith’s ever shifting views on the World Economic Forum, Jesse Kline, Oct. 26
Jesse Kline refers to Danielle Smith’s “seeming inability not to take the media’s bait.” I find it odd that directly and concisely answering reporters’ questions is portrayed as a liability. Perhaps Kline has become used to the rhetoric that comes out of most politicians, most notably our prime minister, whose answers rarely have anything to do with the questions posed to him. At least one politician, Henry Kissinger, was honest about this common deflection method, when he allegedly asked reporters at a news conference, “Does anyone have any questions for my answers?”
Jonathan Lazar, North Vancouver
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