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A joint bid by Discovery Air Inc. and aircraft manufacturer Airbus Military on the Canadian Forces' fixed-wing search and rescue program would bring a base to Yellowknife for a fleet of the C295 search and rescue aircraft, pictured here. - photo courtesy of Airbus

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Response times for search and rescue operations in the North could be drastically reduced under a new proposal that would add a Canadian Forces search and rescue aircraft base to Yellowknife.

The long-awaited Northern search and rescue base is being proposed under a joint bid between Yellowknife-based speciality aviation company Discovery Air Inc. and manufacturer Airbus Military. The plan is to replace Canada's aging fixed-wing search and rescue program fleet with three or four C295 military aircraft.

"Today, there are four bases in Canada that perform search and rescue, so if something happens in the North, somebody is dispatched from either Winnipeg or Trenton, Ont., to handle the North. From Discovery Air's point of view, we think that we should be closer to the North," said Brian Semkowski, president and CEO of Discovery Air, Wednesday at the Air Tindi hangar. "If we want to search and rescue somebody, we should be closer to where the action is happening. The people of Canada in the North deserve to have the same rights they do down south."

Within the next year, Canada's fixed-wing search and rescue secretariat is slated to release a request for proposals to replace the search and rescue program's aging CC-115 Buffalo and CC-130 Hercules aircraft.

While requirements for the contract have not yet been released, Premier Bob McLeod, who was present at the announcement of the Discovery Air-Airbus Military plan, said he is hopeful that one of the requirements will be to have dedicated search and rescue resources in the NWT.

"In any search and rescue situation, every minute counts," McLeod said. "That's especially true during our Northern winters. Northerners are Canadians too. We shouldn't be penalized because of where we live."

Despite calls over the years for a search and rescue base to respond to emergencies in the North - which is currently many hours from the nearest dedicated rescue facility - there has been no military aircraft located in the territory for that purpose

"Any proposal that could improve search and rescue response time in the North is a good proposal in my eyes," McLeod said.

The federal government has been conducting industry consultations with potential bidders to discuss specifics of the 20-year fleet services contract.

Discovery Air would provide the 20-year support package required for the Airbus Military C295s, under a memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies.

The C295s include "state of the art" safety capabilities, including peripheral search radar that could detect people from more than 160 km away, said Antonio Rodriguez-Barberan, Airbus Military commercial vice-president.

If the contract is awarded by 2014, proponents estimate with a two-year delivery period, the new search and rescue fleet can be in operation as early as 2016.

The purchase of new fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft will be competitive, open and transparent, according to the Department of National Defence website.

The new fleet will allow Canadian Forces "to carry out critical, life-saving SAR missions anywhere in Canada, anytime, including the Arctic."

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