Arctic Patrol Vessels
A key federal cabinet committee has given the go-ahead for a plan to construct six corvette-sized Arctic patrol vessels, the Canadian Press has learned.
The cabinet priorities and planning committee approved the program to build the 100-metre-long, 6,000-tonne warships within the last 10 days, according to defence and political sources.
The patrol vessels, which are almost as large as the navy's frigates, are a step down from the armed Arctic icebreakers that the Conservatives promised in the last election campaign and will likely not be in service before 2015.
Overall, this sounds like good news. The armed icebreakers always seemed a little grandiose in any case. Still, the critical point in defending northern sovereignty is having at least one port somewhere up here that those ships can dock at.
One other point deep down in the story also caught my eye. It’s another point about priorities and resources. In this case, the existing icebreaker fleet:
Rob Huebert, a professor of strategic studies at the University of Calgary, said the corvettes are a good step, but they cannot be the only solution for the Arctic.
"It makes sense only if the coast guard is getting its icebreaking fleet recapitalized," he said.
"If this is just a cheap buyout to allow the navy not to get icebreakers, and the coast guard does not get its very old icebreakers replenished, then we're going to be in a lot of hurt."
Last year, Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, who is responsible for the Coast Guard, was warned that the agency's fleet was experiencing severe "rust out" and needed to be replaced. As it stands, Coast Guard icebreakers are not due to begin being replaced until 2017.
Basically, the patrol boats are only good news if they are in addition to the regular icebreaking fleet.
Then again, given that the Conservatives are marching in lockstep with the Global Warming deniers to the south, maybe they figure they won’t be needing those icebreakers in the future.
