$274M for Canadian military vehicles to be built in U.S

Tyr

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At a time when American manufacturers are adamant about tying their stimulus package to a "must be produced in the USA" to qualify for funding, Harpo and his legion of mental midgets spends $274 million on American vehicles with absolutely no industrial benefit to Canada
VALCARTIER, Que. - Federal Defence Minister Peter MacKay defended Friday a $274-million contract awarded to a U.S.-based company for the purchase of 1,300 logistic trucks for the Canadian military.


MacKay painted the announcement as good news for the Canadian economy in difficult times, but was forced to acknowledge the vehicles won't be built in Canada.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay painted the $274-million announcement as good news for the Canadian economy in difficult times, (but didn't specify how those benefits would be realized) but was forced to acknowledge the vehicles won’t be built in Canada.


Illinois-based Navistar Defence LLC won the contract


List of Canadian Defence industry vehicle manufacturers or suppliers


BMT Fleet Technology Ltd
General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada
ING Engineering Inc.
John Deere Limited
MAN Military Vehicle Systems Canada

 

WeeLeprechaun

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This is the Canadian Military, and all should be made at home, or anywhere else just not in the US. We carry them to much. Time we told them to go to hell.
 

DurkaDurka

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I agree, that if we can produce these vehicles at home we should. It is unrealistic though to expect to build everything at home. We don't have the R&D for a lot of it nor the manufacturer to build it.
 

Praxius

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Dec 18, 2007
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Gotta love that..... Canadian intrests at heart, that's for sure.

Just like how Peter McKay sent a knife production contract to China for cheap knockoffs of a product our paratroopers used since just after WWII that were made by a company in Pictou Country, NS. since then.

Why?

Because it was cheaper and of "Equal Quality", Even though by Peter McKay's own words, he claimed he never actually seen China's replacement product before giving the contract to them.... it all boiled down to cost.

Sure it'd be cheaper overall for the product itself.... but what about the financial effect it will have on the company that used to make them for decades?

http://forums.canadiancontent.net/news/77189-pictou-firm-loses-military-contract.html

It’s bad enough that a company in the defence minister’s home riding of Central Nova has lost a contract to supply knives to Canadian Forces paratroopers.

But to add insult to injury, some people who now have the knock-off knives have been calling Grohmann Knives Ltd. in Pictou to complain about their quality, said company co-owner Michelle Jamieson.......

......Any national bid on a contract worth about $100,000 or more must go to tender, and Mr. Pioro was able to offer a comparable product for a lower price, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in a telephone interview Tuesday.....

.......Mr. MacKay said he has not seen the Pioro knife and did not know where it was made, but he owns a Grohmann-made Russell belt knife himself and frequently buys them as gifts......


^ So he knows that the P.County made knife is a good product and he gets them as gifts for other people, and he never seen this new cheap/knock-off product he gave the contract up for..... but since it was cheaper with the china company, that was the bottom line?

As it goes for this news report of the vehicles going to the US, it just sounds more like typical Conservative thinking. (Which is to suck-hole the US as best they can, regardless of the expense to our country and it's people)

During these economic times and so many losing their jobs in the auto industry, you'd think giving this contract to Canadians (In paticular, Ontario) would be a better choice.
 

Tyr

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I agree, that if we can produce these vehicles at home we should. It is unrealistic though to expect to build everything at home. We don't have the R&D for a lot of it nor the manufacturer to build it.

General Dynamics Land Systems builds the vast majority of Canadian military vehicles. They're located in London, Ont.

This contract was a "pure political fob" to the outgoing US regime and Harpo's buddy littl' George
 

lone wolf

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Nov 25, 2006
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I agree, that if we can produce these vehicles at home we should. It is unrealistic though to expect to build everything at home. We don't have the R&D for a lot of it nor the manufacturer to build it.

What R&D? They're trucks - common everyday civilian pattern trucks.... GM and Ford build them every day. Sterling could have used the work - before the plant closed.
 

Tyr

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What R&D? They're trucks - common everyday civilian pattern trucks.... GM and Ford build them every day. Sterling could have used the work - before the plant closed.

um... No.

They do have "unique requirements (NBC survivabity being a least one of them), but the fact is that GM Land Systems has built virtually the exact same MLVW for Canada before.

The odd thing is that the trucks will be more expensive from Navistar LLC. They've had a record yr in 2008 "Navistar Posts Near Record Fiscal 2008 Earnings Excluding Asset Impairment Charges, Despite Weak Truck Market"

The only way Canada could get the trucks from them would be to "buy" a spot at the head of the prodcution line. Not cheap!!

It means re-tooling, bumping somebody elses production (in the case the UK's) and still we are at the mercy of a foreign manufacturer for our defence needs.

Hopefully this "blows up" in MacKays face. It's worse than a "dumb" decision
 

Tyr

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What R&D? They're trucks - common everyday civilian pattern trucks.... GM and Ford build them every day. Sterling could have used the work - before the plant closed.

.but you are right in one respect. Our "little itty bitty" $274 million purchase pales by comparison to the $14.7 billion worth of vehicles they build yrly. It will be an afterthought to them. It could have been a lifeline to Sterling and provided 000's of jobs to Atlantic Canada
 

Cannuck

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Feb 2, 2006
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"Representatives for Navistar said they are required by the contract to spend $274 million over the next seven years on goods and products from Canadian companies. For instance, the tires on the vehicles will be manufactured by Michelin in Nova Scotia."

Sounds good to me!

"...no Canadian company was able to meet all the requirements of the Canadian Forces."

Unless somebody can show me that this is not the case, I will have to support the decision to buy from Navistar. I know the soldiers using these trucks will be happy that the feds didn't settle for something less just to please the American-haters.
 

EagleSmack

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I could see how this would get the Ol' Canadian blood up! It would get mine up too. But I would bet that some of what the US Military uses in made in Canada as well.
 

Tyr

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"Representatives for Navistar said they are required by the contract to spend $274 million over the next seven years on goods and products from Canadian companies. For instance, the tires on the vehicles will be manufactured by Michelin in Nova Scotia."

Sounds good to me!

"...no Canadian company was able to meet all the requirements of the Canadian Forces."

Unless somebody can show me that this is not the case, I will have to support the decision to buy from Navistar. I know the soldiers using these trucks will be happy that the feds didn't settle for something less just to please the American-haters.

...and your source of such earth shattering info is....... NAVISTAR LLC.

Try again and actually do some research this time
 

Cannuck

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Defense Research and Development Canada does a pretty good job for Canada. I don't have the numbers in front of me but I'm sure Canada is the big winner when it comes to both countries supplying the others military. If this was nothing more than throwing a bone to the US then it was probably well worth it.
 

Tyr

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I could see how this would get the Ol' Canadian blood up! It would get mine up too. But I would bet that some of what the US Military uses in made in Canada as well.

That's very true. Quite a bit of US military/NSA intel comes from RADARSAT II and we are required to spend 10% of our military budget in the US and they are required to match that sum in Canada. Considering the recent Canadian purchases of military equipment from the US, do you think the US is buying $10 billion worth from Canada?
 

Cannuck

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...and your source of such earth shattering info is....... NAVISTAR LLC.

I believe my source is the Vancouver Sun. I can only assume that is where you got the original story from as you failed to post a link (which is the proper thing to do lest people accuse you of plagiarism).
 

Tyr

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Defense Research and Development Canada does a pretty good job for Canada. I don't have the numbers in front of me but I'm sure Canada is the big winner when it comes to both countries supplying the others military. If this was nothing more than throwing a bone to the US then it was probably well worth it.

I don't have.... the numbers in front of me but I'm sure....

I don't know, but I'm sure you're just guessing

Like it had posted previously. Do some research. Don't just pull fluff out of the air