Jesus Christ, that assmonkey hasn't been Prime Minister for nearly a year, and here I find another reason tho hate his living guts: I wonder how many of the Upholder's problems would have been avoided if we had picked them up as soon as the cabinet approved the purchase?Subs corroded while Chretien considered options, Collenette tells MPs
Tue Dec 14, 9:25 AM ET
STEPHEN THORNE
OTTAWA (CP) - Used British submarines sat in limbo, corroding for three years after cabinet approved their purchase because former prime minister Jean Chretien didn't think Canadians would find the expenditure palatable, an ex-defence minister said Monday.
The Commons defence committee was considering whether to call Chretien as a witness after David Collenette told them his former boss balked at the $800-million lease-to-purchase plan cabinet approved in 1995. Chretien didn't think Canadians would accept such an expenditure in the midst of health-care and other social service cuts, as well as defence, said Collenette, who is no longer in government.
"There was a consensus in cabinet on the purchase of the submarines," he said.
"I remember clearly that the prime minister said to me: 'You are asking me to make a final decision; I'm going to speak with the ministers and I'm going to make a decision.'
"There was a concern about committing to big chunks of money when we were cutting everywhere in society," Collenette added. "It could be argued that this (delay) created more challenges in making the submarines fully operational, not to mention the additional costs that this would incur."
The all-party committee is looking at the acquisition of the four diesel-electric submarines from Britain after the last of them, HMCS Chicoutimi, caught fire Oct. 5, killing one sailor.
Witnesses have said the subs were a good buy when first considered in the early '90s.
But they were in bad shape when Canada finally decided to buy them in 1998. Witnesses have described leaks, electrical problems and equipment malfunctions - largely, they said, attributable to years of neglect.
A defence White Paper in December 1994 gave approval in principle to the sub purchase. Collenette brought an acquisition strategy on armoured vehicles, helicopters and submarines before cabinet the following spring.
The final timing of the announcement was left to Chretien, "based on the financial climate and the political climate," he said.
The Chretien government cut federal expenditures by 23 per cent - too much of it coming from National Defence, Collenette acknowledged.
"Looking back over the 10 years, we have cut too much from our military capability and I think that Canadians have to face up to the fact that they can't have their cake and eat it too," he said.
"You can't keep calling on the military unless you give them the resources. I think there's now a recognition that perhaps the military needs to reacquire more for its budget."
He said concerns over optics were why the government divided both the armoured vehicle and helicopter purchases into two parts apiece.
The submarines "were sitting there in a climate that was not particularly hospitable," he said after the meeting. "The salt water is corrosive; the air is damp.
"Submarines are probably one of the most technically difficult pieces of equipment to operate and maintain, and that would have added to the issue of them being there for an extra three years."
Collenette told the MPs the British were becoming impatient with Ottawa's indecision on the purchase. He said British Prime Minister John Major raised the submarines with Chretien on several occasions, while Collenette's British counterpart brought it up with him whenever the two met.
"I think they were getting a little frustrated and they were looking at other potential buyers," he said, citing Chile and South Africa, specifically. "We had kept them waiting three years."
Collenette's testimony baffled some committee members, including New Democrat Bill Blaikie.
"Here we have pretty clearly a government that thinks it needs submarines, that has identified the submarines it thinks it needs, knows that to delay the purchase of these submarines entails problems," said Blaikie.
"And yet it can't buy them because of the political perception that creates."
Bloc MP Claude Bachand said he wants to hear from Chretien on the issue. Committee chairman Pat O'Brien said the MPs would discuss it.
Though I do find it interesting that one of Cretin's former ministers actually admitted that we have indeed cut our armed forces too far...
