We have a few items to discuss this week dear diary, so pull up a chair and let’s get started.
Oil prices appear to have steadied out above $50 a barrel. Of course that’s not what our producers here get. It’s nothing anything near that in the discount delivery system. But, at least it’s better than $25. It seems the economy in Sask. hit bottom mid-year last year and all the adjustments that had to be made, were made. I predict 2017 will be a better market and economic year than 2015 and 2016 were.
The United States Navy put in an order for 330 more ships, delivery in three to five years.
The Canadian Navy, by those standards and ratios, could be looking at 33 new frigates and destroyers et al.
Instead, we are getting none. We lost our one supply ship last year, our frigates that were retrofitted with new technology now have problems with the air exchange systems that keep the new equipment cooled. Back to the drawing board.
Our ever-humiliating submarine fleet of one to four machines still can’t re-surface after diving. That’s a bit problematic.
Canada may get one new ship for our decimated navy sometime before the start of the 22nd Century, but don’t count on it based on our history of military procurements.
And speaking of our Department of National Defence, it seems they are spending $1 billion on retrofitting 10 buildings they intend to use as new headquarters, in Ottawa. These are unused buildings they bought in the Nortel firesale. Remember Nortel? Another Canadian success story, right?
But, it turns out, the 10 buildings can never be made secure enough to accommodate the military intelligence community … and I use the word intelligence loosely here.
The special operations folks and joint operations command are going to have to stay right where they are because while their offices are old, they are supposedly secure. But, I have my doubts about that too, based on track records.
They have to stay put or else the international intelligence bureaus that Canada engages on a semi-regular basis, will no longer be engaged if they move to the new (old) Nortel campus.
Based on what I learned, 3,400 military and civilian employees will move into the new facilities and eventually that will increase to 8,500 employees over the 148 acre spread. I don’t know how many secret intelligence people will be left to wander in the Ottawa outbacks in the older, but more secure, quarters, because, I guess, that’s part of the military secret stuff. I don’t have an app for that.
The defence teams are currently housed in 35 different building around the national capital region.
In the meantime, out in the frontlines, Canada deploys about 68,000 to 70,000 supposedly combat ready troops, sailors and air force personnel.
They have 8,500 red tape cover artists in national defence command, ready to serve.
Do ya think we might have too many captains, colonels and generals and not enough troops?
Yet, when other military operatives speak of Canadian forces, they do so, usually, in glowing confirmations of great skills. So, it seems, in spite of all the odds stacked against them in terms of upper-level leadership, or lack thereof, our military can still perform well when needed.
Did you notice I didn’t even bring up our ongoing comedy show regarding the purchase of new fighter aircraft? That would be another whole column all by itself. That file is more comical than the screen door submarines we keep trying to deploy.
Of course it would be more comical if they weren’t needlessly spending all our hard-earned billions of tax dollars in the course of these misadventures.
