Having to choose between a flagship of Quebec’s aerospace industry and an American giant, Justin Trudeau’s government preferred to order new maritime surveillance planes from Boeing rather than Bombardier. Preferred, since this contract of more than ten billion dollars was awarded by mutual agreement, without any valid reason other than wanting to please Defense and the Royal Air Force. And this, coming from a government which once denounced precisely this same behavior. The liberals are today at the height of incoherence.
In the name of “national security”, the federal government plans to purchase up to 16 Poseidon P-8A aircraft from Boeing, to replace its old CP-140 Aurora from the early 1980s. The nature of the threat has since greatly evolved , maritime surveillance devices must be able to detect it even in the seabed and then counter it, the Liberal ministers tried hard to explain last Thursday. The context and the aggressiveness of Russia therefore dictated the purchase of a device available quickly, already tested and piloted. And not to open the door to a “concept” in development, they repeated.
It is true that converting Bombardier’s business jet, the Global 6500, into a military aircraft armed with sensors and torpedo launchers is no small operation. Its outcome is uncertain. And the adventure would take a few years, while the Aurora devices will reach their end of life at the start of the next decade.
It is also true that the interoperability of the Canadian fleet with that of its allies, in order to coordinate, should not be neglected. The P-8A is used by member countries of Canada’s strategic alliances (NORAD, Five Eyes, and three NATO partners).
But what is above all true is that the Air Force itself had internally targeted the Boeing aircraft as being the only one suitable for its operational needs, according to the minister’s admission. of Defense, Bill Blair.
The latter can perhaps be forgiven for his burst of candor. He was not elected when his colleagues played in precisely the same film, ten years ago.
These same federal Liberals – of whom Justin Trudeau was a member – were outraged to see Stephen Harper select, at the request of Defense, observed the Auditor General, the F-35 from Lockheed Martin to replace the fleet of fighter planes Canadians. A decision worthy of a “military dictatorship”, they denounced. In the absence of a call for tenders, the Conservative government was asking Parliament for “a blank check,” lamented opposition MP Dominic LeBlanc, now Minister of Public Security.
Now his government is taking on an identical scenario. And too bad for probity and good public governance, as well as for Bombardier, which is banking on the military market to diversify its activities.
For all the reasons cited above, the Quebec company would probably not have been selected, following a competition open to more than one bidder. But by going to the trouble of holding a call for tenders, or at least offering advance notice of contract award, Ottawa would have allowed Bombardier to defend its proposal for a new generation aircraft, which would be eyed by three or four countries, depending on the company.
However, if its own government turns its back on its plane, Bombardier will now have a harder time convincing these foreign leaders to buy it. So many missed opportunities for this chapter in the future of the aeronautics industry, which could not only have been partly supplied in Quebec (as will also be the Boeing aircraft), but also, in the case of Bombardier, designed and developed in Quebec.
It is also François Legault and Doug Ford that the Trudeau government has just ignored. Just as the unanimous will of the National Assembly and that of a federal parliamentary committee which, like the prime ministers of Quebec and Ontario, demanded that Ottawa grant the Quebec and Canadian giant the fairness of seek this lucrative contract.
Ottawa instead rolled out the red carpet for Boeing which, barely six years ago, launched a trade war against Bombardier and the Canadian government, which the American giant accused of unfairly subsidizing the CSeries. The American rival is thus rewarded, while the Quebec flagship is sidelined.
The Harper government’s naval strategy had also excluded the Quebec bidder from Davie. Proof that Ottawa — with or without a call for tenders, under a liberal or conservative reign — too often has the reflex to shun Quebec.
It took more than a decade for the federal government to finally correct the situation and open the coffers of its billions of dollars in contracts at the Lévis shipyard. Too little hope for Bombardier to see in turn, one day, such a hand also extended towards it.