The Government Air Service (SAG), which has been in the news in recent years due in particular to the dilapidated state of its “hospital planes,” will soon be able to count on a new aircraft. The Legault government has ordered a used Challenger 650 from Bombardier, at a cost of $28 million. The aircraft is to be delivered this week, it has been learned The Dutybut it will still need to undergo modifications before it is operational.
“Finally! We are happy that the government is starting to modernize its fleet. It is essential if we want to have medical coverage that is uniform across Quebec,” says Christian Daigle, general president of the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ), which represents SAG pilots.
Currently, the Government Air Service, which provides air medical transport to the Quebec population in remote regions, has two Challenger 601 aircraft for emergency transport and two Dash 8s for regular transport.
However, the two Challenger aircraft are “so old that they sometimes have difficulty taking off and their parts are difficult to replace,” says Mr. Daigle. Both aircraft are more than thirty years old: one was built by Bombardier in 1994, the other in 1989.
The fleet will soon be rejuvenated with the addition of a Used Challenger 650, according to the private contract concluded on June 14 between the Quebec Ministry of Transport and the Bombardier company, which appears on the government tender site.
At Dutythe office of Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault argues that the addition of this 2017 aircraft “will extend the life of the other two Challenger aircraft.” But to temper expectations, the office specifies that this new aircraft will not solve all of the SAG’s service challenges, which are notably facing a shortage of manpower.
The next step for the government will now be to find a service provider for the medical fitting of this device. A call for tenders was published on this subject on July 31.
According to John Gradek, an aviation industry expert and director of the aviation management program at McGill University, once that service provider is found, it will still take “about 3 to 4 months to redo the entire interior of this aircraft,” which is currently a business jet.
A “necessary” investment
The amount of 28 million paid by the Quebec government for the purchase of this new device “seems reasonable” in the eyes of Mr. Gradek, who describes this investment as “necessary.”
“What is a life worth when you need emergency care or surgery?” asks Christian Daigle of the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec. “I don’t think there is any family in Quebec that needs this type of plane that will say we can do without it because it costs too much, $28 million. Someone in Val-d’Or or Chibougamau has the right to the same medical treatment as someone in Quebec City or Montreal,” he argues.
According to Mr. Daigle, it is “urgent” to invest in the ambulance system, at the risk of “having to pay more” by passing on emergency medical transport to private subcontractors.
On the problem of the shortage of SAG pilots, Christian Daigle notes that their salary conditions should soon be improved – which would help to slow their exodus to the private sector – if the agreement in principle for the renewal of their collective agreement is adopted in the coming weeks.
Last January, the lack of pilots and the obsolescence of SAG planes caused a tragedy. A patient who was to be transported urgently to Montreal died on the tarmac of the Val-d’Or airport, reported The Press at the beginning of the year.