`Secret' drone headquarters to be in Ottawa, federal records reveal
False information previously provided to media
Ottawa will be the site for a new $65-million military facility to control the Royal Canadian Air Force's drone fleet.
The Ottawa installation, to be ready by 2028, will be around 6,000 square metres in size. It will be home to almost 200 military personnel whose job will be to operate and control a new fleet of drones flying from military bases in British Columbia and Nova Scotia.
The Canadian Forces and National Defence originally claimed in an April 8 statement to the Ottawa Citizen that the location in Ottawa for the new building was secret for security reasons.
But that information was false. National Defence outlined details about the location at Uplands in Ottawa in publicly available documents that are online. The department also held public consultations on the Uplands location as part of its environmental assessment for the site, government documents show.
The publicly available records outline the construction of the building as well as a parking lot for employees who will work at the Uplands site.
The documents indicate that the proposed size of the
facility has increased. It was originally envisioned as a 4,000-square-metre building, according to the records, but will now be around 6,000 square metres.
After the publication of an article quoting defence officials claiming the location of the drone installation was secret, military personnel contacted the Ottawa Citizen with details and links to the publicly available documents. They alleged the Canadian Forces and National Defence were deliberately trying to provide false information to the newspaper.
The initial response with false information was approved by the office of Troy Crosby, assistant deputy minister for Materiel, and the RCAF, commanded by Lt. Gen. Eric Kenny.
Asked why the department and military falsely claimed the drone site was secret when it wasn't, National Defence noted in a statement that “when a request is received from the media, the department tries to provide a comprehensive and transparent response.
“The development of departmental media responses
requires consultations and approvals from subject matter experts at various levels within different areas of DND/CAF to ensure we give accurate answers to the media,” the statement added. “This process was followed in the development of the (drone) related query responses.”
The new building will house six stations to control the drones and two simulators to support operations. It will accommodate 198 personnel.
The Liberal government announced on Dec. 19 that Canada would buy 11 of the remotely piloted aircraft from a U.S. company for $2.5 billion. The new drones will be stationed at 14 Wing Greenwood, N.S., and 19 Wing Comox, B.C.
The military personnel who contacted the Ottawa Citizen to point out the RCAF'S bogus secrecy claim also noted that even the locations of Canada's most sensitive defence organizations weren't secret. The Joint Task Force Two counterterrorism unit, and the electronic spy organization, the Communications Security
Establishment, operate from Ottawa locations that are openly acknowledged by the federal government and Canadian military.
Design work is underway for the drone facility and a contract for the modified design-build project was tendered and awarded to Bird Construction in May 2023.
A federal contract award site also lists another firm as receiving in the last week a $112,000 contract for consulting services for the drone facility.
National Defence could not say when construction of the installation would start. In an emailed statement, the department noted it expected the facility to be complete in 2028.
Critics have pointed out the military and National Defence are sliding towards more secrecy even as the federal government frees up billions of dollars in additional spending.
The secrecy problem has become so bad that the House of Commons Committee on National Defence has launched hearings into the lack of openness and transparency.
So far it has heard that National Defence violates federal law in almost 40 per cent of the requests it receives to produce records under the Access to Information Act.
The committee has also heard the department continues to withhold a wide range of records, including documents on shipbuilding and fighter jets requested by a Conservative MP in 2017 and 2018 as well as files needed by military sexual assault survivors for legal purposes.