Mr. Speaker, if anything demonstrates the reason why the current government has lost the moral capacity to govern and why it cannot be trusted by the Canadian people in general and, more specific, the men and women in uniform who are members of Canada's armed forces, it has to be the government's record when it comes to military procurement and, more specifically, helicopters.
At the time I posed the question to the Minister of National Defence, military families were waiting for the public release of the final report on Rescue 420, the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of two Canadian Forces pilots, Captain Colin Sonoski and Captain Juli-Ann Mackenzie. They died in a helicopter crash on July 18, 2002, returning from a search and rescue mission in central Labrador at the controls of a C-146 Griffon helicopter.
My concerns were heightened by the fact that as a consequence of the unreliability of the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter, due to the premature wear of certain parts causing their breakdown, Griffon helicopters were being used to replace the Cormorants in search and rescue operations.
There is continuing concern that the additional stress, which search and rescue operations put on the components of a helicopter not intended to be used in search and rescue operations, will result in the deaths of more pilots.
The Liberal Party was made aware years before the tragic accident that claimed the lives of two Canadian pilots that the search and rescue role was inappropriate for the Griffon helicopter, since it was not outfitted for that role. It is a testament to the skills of the soldiers who administer the airworthiness program for Canadian aircraft that there have been as few deaths as there have been.
The risk management process for the safety of equipment should never have been politicized the way helicopter procurement has been politicized in the country. My concern is for the safety of the pilots.
The 412 Bell Commercial helicopter, which is what the CH-146 Griffon helicopter is patterned on, is in use with 1,800 of these helicopters in service worldwide with over 15 million hours of accumulated flight time. It is important to explain to Canadians that the Bell 412 helicopter can be purchased in a search and rescue configuration, certified by the FAA for that role.
What should have occurred when the Bell Model 412 HP was purchased, was when the political decision was made by the Prime Minister, as Chrétien's finance minister, to cancel the EH-101 search and rescue helicopter contract, the search and rescue version of the Bell 412 should have been added or substituted in the original order for 100 helicopters.
This we know was not done. Now the Liberal Party must be held accountable for the deaths of air force pilots who have lost their lives as a consequence of the political decision to cancel the search and rescue helicopter contract for the worst of reasons, political expediency.
There is no way the Prime Minister would not have known the consequences of cancelling the contract to purchase the search and rescue helicopters. There was a financial cost of over $800 million of taxpayer money and a human cost in the lives lost, which is still being paid today.
This issue is very important to all Canadians. As a result of Liberal Party political interference in the military procurement process, the helicopters that are in use today are ill-suited to the demands being placed on them.
Since that decision was made by the Chrétien government and his finance minister to play politics with helicopter purchases, pilots have lost their lives. More pilots will lose their lives until the government stops playing politics with our military. Lives will continue to be at risk as a consequence.
I understand the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority could provide no analysis of the safety of the Bell 412 helicopter in use by the Canadian military due to the extensive modifications made to suit the military roles of the helicopter in Canada. The difference is the extreme usage of this helicopter in military applications in Canada as opposed to the way this helicopter is used in the commercial applications, for which it was intended, accounting for the problems that have been experienced by the Griffon fleet.