Hotel bills for Libyan mission topped $11M
Lodgings were cheaper than building base for crews in Italy, DND says
OTTAWA— Canada’s top guns and their support crews rang up $11 million in hotel bills during their time patrolling the skies over Libya.
But defence officials insisted Thursday it was more Motel 6 than Mediterranean villas, with the average nightly rate ringing in at $115. The Defence Department was sent scrambling Thursday after CBC News revealed that Canadian military personnel who took part in the NATO mission last year were housed in hotels. That included the pilots and crews of the seven CF-18 Hornets that flew more than 900 sorties over Libya, along with the crews for a CC-150 Polaris refuelling aircraft that also took part.
The total cost of last year’s mission, known as OP Mobile, was $104 million. The cost of housing 440 personnel deployed over 227 days — from March to November — was $11.5 million.
On Thursday, ministry staff defended the decision, citing logistics and cost.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent Canadian aircrews to join a NATO mission that was enforcing a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone and supporting demonstrators on the ground who eventually overthrew Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
But with crews arriving from many NATO nations, there wasn’t enough room at the Italian military bases to accommodate everyone.
Adding to the headache was the fact that NATO extended the mission several times, sometimes in 60-day increments, “which made long-term planning very difficult,” Defence spokesman Daniel Blouin told the Star on Thursday.
He said the Canadians also had the challenge of being based at three locations, with a headquarters in Naples and two bases on opposite sides of Sicily.
“Having one central camp or even multiple camps would pose several logistical problems, which would have added additional costs to Canadian taxpayers, such as the costs and time required to transport our personnel from bases to airfields,” Blouin said. “. . . There were no additional teardown costs that would have been associated with deconstructing our own camp.”