Grounding of Snowbirds example of military’s treatment

This column is irrationally angry. Furious, even. Born of deep frustration and irritation with my government. Not any one government but successive governments. Not because of something they did, but something they didn’t do.

They failed to keep Canada’s iconic Snowbirds flying. They knew they had to and still didn’t.

They knew the aircraft had to be replaced and waited and waited until it was too late. They kicked the decision can so far down the road, it may be a decade after this season before Canada’s elite aerobatics team punches the sky to thrill Canadians.

Last week’s decision to ground the Snowbirds cannot be challenged when it comes to crew safety. The 11 CT-114 Tutor aircraft of 431 Squadron are 60 years old. Tune-ups go with aging. Still, they should have been replaced years ago when no interruption would have occurred. Instead, they were “modernized,” kept aloft with engineering upgrades and maintenance Band-Aids. Why? Because it was cheaper than buying new.

That made sense — for a while. Maximize the value of public assets. Don’t spend money needlessly. But that comes with another obligation. Plan for what comes next. When cheap and cheerful winds up describing your country’s approach to its armed forces, then you get what you pay for.

Canada sought and got years of inspiring Snowbirds performances on the cheap. The skill and professionalism of the pilots was matched only by the skill and professionalism of the ground crew that serviced them. Not that this was costless. Necessary upgrades to the Tutor jets for avionics, navigation systems and ejection seats were pegged at $30 million in 2021. This was supposed to keep them airworthy until 2030.

Instead, after spending the money, they are being retired four years early. Maintaining the Snowbirds is not the same as replacing them. The government acted as though it was. They missed their own memo. Numerous, in fact. Going all the way back to the early 2000s.

A specific proposal to buy new aircraft was first made in 2012 under the Harper government. It balked at the $755-million price tag. Seven years later, the Trudeau government rejected an interim aircraft replacement proposal that could have bridged the period between when the inevitable grounding of the Tutors arrived, and a newly outfitted Snowbirds squadron could take wing.

Five years after that, in 2024, then minister of national defence Bill Blair said the RCAF would start looking for a replacement aircraft. Now, two years on, we get current Defence Minister David McGuinty (there have been eight in the last 20 years, or a new one every two and a half years) announcing the Snowbirds will have their wings clipped until the new CT-157 Siskin II turboprop aircraft can be procured.

To put it bluntly, everyone at the defence department knew this day would come. They just hoped it wouldn’t come on their watch. With actual pressing military capacity needs — fighter jets, frigates and weaponry that sharpened the fighting teeth of the CAF — finding budgetary room for ceremonial capacity took second or even third place.

Cannibalizing parts to keep the Snowbirds airworthy was a better option than cannibalizing money from other equipment. That’s the way our armed forces have been treated for more than two decades. There was always another priority, civilian not military, that had its hand out first. It’s not like government spending was at risk. Rising deficits have been the norm since 2008 in Canada. Increased military spending just didn’t matter.

Until now.

This year’s federal budget announced $81.8 billion over the next five years in increased military spending to meet the five per cent NATO defence investment pledge by 2035.

So, there’s money to replace the Snowbirds. But, weirdly, no mention of doing so in the budget. Such a high-profile decision would have earned a prominent place in any finance minister’s speech. That it didn’t suggests it was hoping not to. At best, it had a plan to have a plan. Even now, there is no actual contract in place, cost or timeline attached to the new aircraft.

Running out of runway, the government finally made the right call. But years of prevarication and an inability to properly plan and procure military equipment is as distinctive to Canada as the Snowbirds themselves. Which means Canadians can be properly skeptical as to whether and when this commitment will ever materialize.

“Keep ’Em Flying” was the exhortative motto of the U.S. Army Air Corps during the Second World War. It encapsulated the fighting spirit and industrial might of the U.S. as the world’s “arsenal of democracy.” It helped win that war and defeat Canada’s enemies.

“Keep ’Em Flying” was also the title of a period Abbot and Costello comedy movie about joining the air force.

It would be nice if equipping Canada’s Armed Forces going forward feels a lot less slapdash and slapstick than it has up till now.

» David McLaughlin is a former clerk of the executive council and cabinet secretary in the Manitoba government. This column also appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press.