Liberals pressure Ottawa to keep Aurora maritime patrol planes

Melanie Patten, THE CANADIAN PRESS

HALIFAX - The military's surveillance capabilities could suffer if Ottawa announces plans next week to replace Aurora maritime patrol planes instead of continuing to refit the aging fleet, the Liberal party's defence critic argued Monday.

In reaffirming the Liberals' position that there's plenty of life left in the nearly 30-year-old planes, Denis Coderre said surveillance on the East and West coasts, as well as in the Arctic, could be at risk.

"Those planes have a capacity to be perfect up to 2025," Coderre told a news conference, where he was joined by Nova Scotia MPs Geoff Regan, Scott Brison and Michael Savage.

"If we are replacing them ... and we're stalling those other (upgrades), you will have kind of a gap in some years when Canada won't be able to fulfil its own military duty. That's a problem in itself."

The upgrades, started under the previous Liberal government, were put on hold in September on the Auroras, which are used also used to track submarines.

Defence sources have argued the air force could have new planes by the time the Aurora refit is completed in the 2012-13 time frame.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who represents Nova Scotia in cabinet, said last month that the government is looking at the option of replacing the 18 Auroras, 14 of which are based in Greenwood, N.S.

An announcement on the aircraft's future is expected Dec. 18, almost one month after an earlier government deadline.

MacKay said Monday his department was "very close to making a decision" on whether to buy new planes.

He dismissed Coderre's claim of a possible gap in surveillance patrols as "nonsense."

"That's exactly what we're trying to avoid," he said from Ottawa. "We want to ensure that there won't be a gap.

"We do not want to see a repetition of the debacle that we saw under the Liberal government went it came to the replacement for the Sea King helicopters. We know we pushed their usefulness way beyond their limits because of the miserly approach taken to defence spending taken by the Liberal government, of which three of those members were a part."

Coderre argued that Ottawa has already spent more than $900 million to upgrade the planes and cancelling the project would cheat taxpayers. In 2005, the Liberals awarded two contracts totalling $961 million to Nova Scotia-based IMP Aerospace and L-3 Electronic Systems to upgrade the planes.

Some 2,000 jobs could be lost in Nova Scotia if the projects are called off, said Coderre.

Brison said the Liberals awarded the contracts because they provided the best value for taxpayers, security for the military and industrial benefits.

"Nothing has changed in terms of the benefits," said Brison, the party's industry critic.

"If, in fact, this decision is good for the taxpayer, or good for the region, or good for the Canadian Armed Forces, why doesn't the minister make the announcement now?"

The first two phases of the refurbishment upgraded the navigation, global positioning and radar systems of the aircraft.

The next two stages would improve the planes' data management system, sensors such as imaging radar, and offer protection against surface-to-air missiles.

The air force is reportedly looking at two potential replacement aircraft: Boeing's P-8 Poseidon, and the Astor, made by Bombardier.

MacKay said the Auroras are 28 years old and his department is committed to continuing the updgrades.

"But what we have to be concerned about is the ongoing sustainability of an aircraft that's 28 years old and that has a certain number of flying hours that we can avail ourselves of," he said.

MacKay also dismissed Liberal fears about the future of the Greenwood base if the Aurora's are replaced.

"We just invested $74 million in Greenwood, including a new air control tower," he said.

"There's no intention whatsoever to negatively impact either the surveillance capability, or the base itself. Quite the opposite. We want to enhance that, particularly when it comes to the necessity of greater surveillance in the Arctic."