Canadian Navy support ship replacement program and new Coast Guard ships quietly cancelled

[Chris C.]

The Canadian Press
Sat. Aug 23 - 9:20 PM

OTTAWA

[Michael Martin]

I shouldn't see how anyone should be surprised. Typical politics of buying a vote. Now, you'll see the Tories saying, "At least we made the tough decision to cancel." The truth is that the tough decision is to actually go through with your campaign promise despite the cost. These vessels are needed, that's why the announcement of their construction HELPED get these bums elected.  Sad to see actually.

[Jean Hemond]

This is business as usual for Canadian politics!

 From shipbuilding budgets its recognised ageold practice  to obtain votes from a maximum  of general elections,
Then the same money is used again  in regional by-elections !

But  its also obvious that the building estimates always cilmb by adding the latest tecnologies and thus spreading the subcontracts to more proheminent political contributors!

The management of the programs going to not  very specialised ( often completely out of the shipbuilding picture) general engineering firms results in only adding to unnecessary costs.

In this part of the country we have seen Major ship's refit  brought in yards even in drydock and  cancelled right after elections !
I guess its the same practice throughout Canada!

[Magogman]

What about funding for additional ships to patrol the Arctic coast?  I would deem this to be absolutely vital to Canadian interests given the melting icepack and the claims of other countries, especially Russia.  The Canadian govt may rue the day when they made this short sighted decision.

[Chris C.]

The following is a editorial from the Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper

Wed. Aug 27 - 4:46 AM

LOOSE lips might sink ships, but so does a lack of loose change.

It is now obvious the federal Conservatives seriously misjudged how much it would cost to build three new supply ships for the navy and a dozen mid-shore patrol vessels for the coast guard.

On a positive note, however, they have apparently mastered stealth technology

[Kier Shackleton Gigeroff]

Pathetic and sad are the only words I can think of here.
Shame on the Conservatives. I've never liked them anyways, but a combination of this and the Icebreaker move just angered me even more.

(Sorry to get in late on this one; I've been away for over a month.)