BILLIONS TO EXTEND SUBS’ LIVES
OTTAWA — The federal government is planning to spend billions more on the navy’s four submarines to keep them operating into the 2030s.
The plan to extend the lives of the troubled vessels is included in the government’s new defence policy and comes following calls from senior naval officers to save the ships from the scrap heap.
The actual price of the plan was not revealed in the policy document, which was released to much fanfare last week, and National Defence refused to provide a price tag following multiple requests.
That is despite assertions from the government that the defence policy was fully costed and following promises of full transparency when it came to the overall plan.
“Detailed costing will be provided in the Defence Investment Plan to be published in due course,” National Defence spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said in an email.
Defence sources, however, have told The Canadian Press that keeping the submarines in the water for another decade will cost upward of $2.5 billion.
Without upgrades, the first of the submarines will reach the end of its life in 2022, according to documents obtained last year through Access to Information, with the last retired in 2027.
Some have questioned the wisdom of spending more money on the four vessels, which have been plagued with problems since Canada bought them used from Britain in 1998.
While the Chrétien government said at the time that it was getting a bargain by paying only $750 million, the ships have required constant repairs and upgrades just to make them seaworthy for a limited time.
While a number of experts have called for Canada look to purchase new submarines, rather than upgrading the ones it has, others have said the country doesn’t need such expensive vessels.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan this week emphasized the Liberal government’s view, previously expressed by senior naval officials, that subs are necessary for protecting Canada’s security and sovereignty.
“No other platform in the Canadian Armed Forces can do what a submarine can do,” Sajjan said during an event in Halifax on Monday.
“No other platform has the stealth, the intelligence-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance capability and the deterrence to potential adversaries that a sub does.”
Sajjan said that the government decided upgrading the existing subs — HMCS Chicoutimi, Victoria, Corner Brook and Windsor — was more “prudent” than purchasing new vessels.