Maintenance contract for submarines defies common sense: Casey

TRURO - Awarding a $1.5-billion maintenance contract for Canada's Victoria-class submarines puzzles MP Bill Casey.
The Cumberland Colchester Musquodoboit Valley Independent member has been following the sub program since the country purchased the boats from Britain in 1998.
A report Thursday said a British Columbia group won the maintenance contract despite three of the four subs being located in Halifax.
"If you had a fleet of trucks in Nova Scotia, you would not be servicing them in British Columbia," Casey told the Truro Daily News on Friday. "It just defies common sense to me."
Only the Victoria is on the west coast. It experienced problems when travelling through the Panama Canal, Casey said.
"The subs were not designed to operate in warm waters and they don't have adequate cooling."
Casey has raised the contract issue with numerous federal ministers and was given the impression it was going to be corrected.
"I was told by more than one minister that the decision was being reviewed and they were 'all over it,'" Casey said.
He is disappointed by government's choice.
"It just seemed like a decision that must have been made in a vacuum," said Casey, who was named the most knowledgeable MP on Canada's fleet of submarines by PoliticsWatch.com in 2005. "I can't imagine how they made this decision."
Irving Shipbuilding Inc. called on the federal government on Friday to re-tender the contract based on five reasons.
The company said it has won two court challenges to its right to contest the contract awarding and will continue that fight.
"The awarding of this contract is a travesty," said vice-president Kevin Hudson. "We don't want a court victory that pays out damages. We want to put 200 skilled shipyard employees at Halifax to work."
He said a similar battle occurred in 1999 and the contract was re-evaluated.
"We won based on the merits of our proposal, value to taxpayers and the skill and expertise of our people," he said. "We are not giving up."

jmalloy@trurodaily.com