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Editorial: Ships became political football

When the Royal Canadian Navy must use eBay to scrounge parts for its aging ships, something is seriously wrong with the way we equip our armed forces.

When the Royal Canadian Navy must use eBay to scrounge parts for its aging ships, something is seriously wrong with the way we equip our armed forces.

In Esquimalt last week, the supply ship HMCS Protecteur was “paid off,” naval terminology for “the last one out, please turn off the lights.” Forty-six years old and damaged by fire, it was taken out of service years before a replacement vessel will be built.

Early retirement was also decreed for its East Coast counterpart, HMCS Preserver, and one guided-missile destroyer on each coast. Preserver has made its last voyage, so Canada has no operational supply ships.

While Preserver limped toward its paying off, we learn that navy mechanics in Halifax were poring over their computers trying to find parts on eBay or elsewhere on the Internet to keep it working. The original manufacturer no longer makes parts, and corrosion left many existing ones “beyond acceptable limits,” according to briefing notes obtained by the Canadian Press.

Without supply ships, Canadian vessels will have to rely on foreign replenishment ships or duck into the nearest port for food and fuel. Neither is a palatable option if we hope to be part of international missions, either combat or humanitarian.

Construction of the new supply ships will not even begin until 2017, assuming that the program proceeds on schedule. Some observers think it could be the mid-2020s before the supply ships are commissioned. The government is looking for some way to fill the gap until they are ready.

The new vessels are being built under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy. The strategy was an attempt by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives to take at least some of the politics out of the $30-billion naval shipbuilding contract.

They deserve credit for turning over to a committee of experts the work of determining which shipyards would get the contracts. That’s the group that assigned the combat ships to Irving on the East Coast and the non-combat ones to Seaspan on the West Coast, leaving Quebec’s Davie yard with nothing.

Strangely enough, published reports say Davie might have a temporary solution to the supply-ship problem. Humming again under new ownership, the yard in Levis, Que., has offered to convert a commercial tanker in 16 months and lease it to the navy for $35 million to $65 million a year.

It’s an interesting pitch, but it underscores the consequences of a perennially dysfunctional military-procurement system.

Supply ships were on the federal to-do list long ago, but were cancelled by the Conservative government in 2008, ostensibly because they were too expensive. It was reminiscent of the tortured efforts to replace the navy’s Sea King helicopters, which have gone through decades of cancellations and delays.

We now have a state-of-the-art hangar at Victoria’s airport for the new choppers, but nothing to put in it but Sea Kings.

Using military procurement for political purposes is nothing new — in Canada or other countries. Usually, it means dropping lucrative construction contracts into cities or provinces where the federal government wants to shore up support. It’s a hard habit to break, but it’s a habit we can’t afford.

Cancelled ships, cancelled helicopters, delayed fighter jets. Regardless of which party is in charge, the lost time costs us money and undercuts the ability of our men and women in uniform to do the jobs we expect of them.

Until we can find a way to make consistent, long-term plans for purchases — and stick to them — using eBay will be an essential part of military training.