DND postpones promised search-and-rescue upgrade

Plan would cut time to detect, locate distress signal from 60 to 5 minutes

A project to significantly boost Canada’s search and rescue capabilities, announced with great fanfare in 2013 by then-defence minister Peter MacKay, has been quietly put on hold by the Conservative government.

Canadian space company Com Dev was selected to design and build search-and-rescue transponders that were going to be installed on U.S. military satellites.

The transponders would allow search and rescue teams to better locate signals transmitted by distress beacons.

They would reduce from 60 minutes to five minutes the time it would take for rescuers to detect and locate a distress signal.

The project was announced in May 2013 by MacKay, just days after a scathing report by the auditor general on the problems with Canada’s search-and-rescue system.

Development of the transponders had been ongoing at Com Dev’s facilities in Ottawa and Cambridge, Ont.

But earlier this year, Mike Pley, Com Dev’s chief executive, told investment analysts the project had been suspended by the Defence Department.

Pley did not provide a reason for DND’s decision.

DND confirmed changes have been made to the project, known as Medium Earth Orbit Search and Rescue, or MEOSAR.

DND spokeswoman Ashley Lemire noted in an email the U.S. military added additional requirements to the project, but later removed those.

“The Government of Canada took a prudent decision to proceed with a de-scoped work package that would address costs, risk and schedule implications of both the initial requirement and the additional, while suspending all other work as it was no longer required,” she said.

But military and industry sources say the problem is with finding enough money to proceed with the project at a time of cuts ordered by the Conservative government.

DND officials have put a halt to MEOSAR work as they try to convince other federal departments to contribute money to it, sources said.

Although the initial contract with Com Dev was for less than $5 million, the DND procurement guide lists the total cost for the system as being between $100 million and $249 million.

Lemire said the government is still committed to MEOSAR. But DND could not provide any details on when money would be made available for moving ahead and building the transponders.

Like all government departments, DND is dealing with government-ordered cuts.

In addition, the Conservative government has removed $3.1 billion from the department’s budget for buying new equipment in the future.

The development of the first U.S. satellite had fallen behind schedule, but is now expected to be ready for launch in 2016. Additional satellites will be launched in the coming years.

In April 2013, Auditor General Michael Ferguson warned that some elements of Canada’s searchand-rescue system were near the “breaking point.”

In response, the Conservatives quickly unveiled a number of new initiatives, with then associate minister of defence Kerry-Lynne Findlay predicting MEOSAR “will be a real game changer for search and rescue operations” because of the speed with which it could locate distress signals.

“As the lead minister for searchand-rescue activities, I firmly believe there is no such thing as ‘good enough’ when it comes to saving the lives of our fellow Canadians,” added MacKay.

Besides the building of 24 transponders, the MEOSAR project was also to include the establishment of ground stations to receive the data from space.

In his audit, Ferguson also noted Canada didn’t have the right type of or enough search-and-rescue aircraft.

The plan to replace the military’s aging search-and-rescue planes has been foundering for more than a decade.

A request for bids was recently released to aerospace firms, but the government cannot say when it expects new aircraft to be on the flight line.