Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my statement yesterday, my theory about trends coming forward in this government, the private sector is taking a hit at the hands of this government. Yesterday I talked about including stakeholders in private industry who have been on the front line of these sectors for years. Today I want to offer my observations about our government’s latest direction in fighting forest fires.
Buffalo Airways has been involved in that industry for 45 years. Twenty of those 45 years with the CL-215s, named the ducks, and you only have to see them parked on the tarmac to see why they are called the ducks.
Over those 45 years, Buffalo Joe has done everything from smoke patrol, Single Otter water bombing, helicopter water bombing, 10 years of birddogging and 20 years with the 215s. Based on that history, let me go out on a limb here and suggest this is a person and a company that may know a bit about aircraft and a bit about fighting fires.
We heard in Committee of the Whole, the last time we considered the capital infrastructure, all of the things that are wrong with the 215s such as access to avgas, an aging fleet, the turnaround time if they’re too far from a sufficiently sized body of water. We heard that the new proposed fleet of 802s would be the ideal solution for fighting fires here in the North.
A government-owned solution grounding a fleet of privately owned aircraft, we made every argument we could think of to dissuade this government and this Minister from dismantling this tried and proven fleet in our northern arsenal from fighting fire. We even suggested a hybrid approach: add the 802s but keep the 215s, as each aircraft has a very different capability and application. But no, this Minister will hear nothing of it.
Fast forward one year and already Alberta has lost two 802s. Two accidents, two planes down. One fatality in these single-manned 802s with floats that were never intended for the task of fighting a big fire with smoke updrafts and the restricted maneuverability of adding floats to an aircraft designed for fair-weather crop dusting, short hauls and small fires. But the 215s, like the DC3s and DC4s, are flying tanks meant for heavy payload and can fly into the kind of atmospheric conditions that are created by a large fire.
I want to ask if anyone else sees a trend here, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement, please.
---Unanimous consent granted
I want to ask if anyone else sees a trend here. This disregard for a private sector company with years of experience and knowledge to bring to the costly and complicated science of fighting fires. This is the mindset of a government bent on increasing government while throwing out the private sector with potentially dire and irreversible consequences.
I pose the question: How does that jibe with the GNWT is open for business? The Northwest Territories is open for business investment and we travel all over the world with that message. How do these actions jibe with that? Mr. Speaker, there’s only 173 days left in this Assembly and all I can say is thank God.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
