When Newfoundland and Labrador becomes the focal point and our shipyard becomes seemingly the best and only shipyard that can be used to do this particular contract, all of a sudden they first talk about going offshore and now they decide to cancel the project. There is something going wrong somewhere.
"Something wrong with JSS contract, Oram says", Telegram, Tuesday, 25 August 2008
Newfoundland and Labrador business minister Paul Oram is blaming the strained relationship between his boss and the Prime Minister for the federal government's decision to scrap the joint support ship contract.
Premier Danny Williams said much the same thing in a radio talk show Tuesday.
Now of course that isn't what they meant, but, in truth, the very notion that the federal government would deliberately scrap an important contract because Danny and Steve don't get along is ludicrous in itself. Silly as the thought is, both ministers offered it up to news media with a completely straight face.
In the Telegram story quoted above, Oram related a conversation he claims to have had with federal industry minister Jim Prentice while both ministers attended the Farnborough air show in July. In the conversation, Prentice reportedly said that the federal government was considering having the hulls built outside Canada and the topsides and other fitting out work done in the country.
That part of the story is likely accurate since it jives with media reports that predate Oram's junket to the world's premiere air show. Oram would have had those reports long before Farnborough if his media clipping service and Our Man in a Blue Line Cab were doing their jobs.
Ottawa Citizen defence columnist David Pugliese reported in late May that both finalist shipyards had advised government they could produce only two of the three required ships for the $2.9 billion budgeted by treasury board for the project.
Pugliese blogged in early August that National Defence was examining a number of alternatives, including building the ships overseas. That was seen at the time as politically unpalatable given that two shipyards in the country were technically capable of doing the work.
That's where Oram's account of the Prentice exchange and the likely one start to diverge. While Oram claims the offshore option was considered because yards couldn't do the work, the thread that runs consistently through the story - and the one devoid of the political silliness Oram was trying to flog - is that there was enough money budgeted for either of the Canadian yards to be able to complete the project as tendered.
Big difference.
The joint support ships contract will likely come back and come back quickly since the vessels are needed urgently to replace the worn-out auxiliary oil replenishment vessels currently in service. One of the consistent criticisms of the project is that the ships were supposed to do too many jobs for one hull.
In addition to providing logistics support for deployed naval forces (food, fuel and ammunition resupply), the JSS was supposed to serve as a transport ship capable of carrying an infantry company plus equipment to an overseas deployment. At one point, the navy reportedly considered leasing a mothballed American amphibious assault ship for army support role while building conventional stores ships to replace the existing vessels.
There's no question these ships are needed, no matter what the configuration involved. Whatever the reason, the project was dealt a serious blow with the cancellation. Coupled with the reported financial problems inside the current federal administration, it may not be back on track for some time to come. In the meantime, the existing hulls will reach the end of the workable life in 2012.
Something needs to be sorted out and sorted soon.
That will likely need to be done by federal politicians.
This contract may well serve voters as a good test to use when sorting through their federal candidates in the next election. If they are toeing a line - especially the childish ABC one - it might be an idea to leave them on the bench and look for a better alternative.
Unfortunately, the provincial government - through administrations of all stripes - doesn't seem to understand either the importance of defence industries to the provincial economy or what it takes to be effective in dealing with the federal government on defence issues. Oram's not the first provincial cabinet minister to make asinine comments and sadly he likely won't be the last.
When politicians leap into complex issues they clearly know nothing about - as Oram clearly doesn't - they only serve to bugger up the works at worst or get ignored at best.
The men and women of the Canadian Forces, a great many of them from this province, can do without that kind of "help".
The men and women of businesses like Marystown can do without it as well.
-srbp-