Costly fuel prompts cuts at northern military station

[Spartan]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/13/north-alert-military060413.html

Costly fuel prompts cuts at northern military station
Last Updated Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:16:38 EDT
CBC News
Rising fuel costs have led the Canadian military to make cutbacks at the Alert station in the Far North, just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is promising to reinforce Arctic sovereignty claims.

Canadian Forces Station Alert, located on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut , is a radio monitoring outpost and the most northerly permanent settlement in the world.

Some of the support jobs at the base that are now filled by military personnel, including cooks, janitors, drivers, and mechanics, will instead be undertaken by civilian contractors, military officials say.

There are approximately 70 armed forces personnel at the base, down from a peak of about 200 in the 1980s.

While refusing to say how big a cut there will be, Canadian military officials insist it won't affect the force's mission in the North.

Maj. Gioseph Anello says the Department of National Defence had to cut costs to offset the expense of heating the station's buildings.

He denies the move to contract workers signals a weaker commitment to northern sovereignty.

"If that message is being sent out, then it's not us sending it," Anello said. "We are recapitalizing. We are rationalizing to provide better sustainability up in Alert."

Anello points out the military is also investing money in the station, and modernizing some parts of the aging facility.

But NDP defence critic Dawn Black says the cuts are troubling.

During the recent federal election campaign, Harper promised a new Conservative government would enhance Arctic sovereignty by spending $5.3 billion over five years to defend northern waters against the Americans, the Russians and the Danes.

Black says that given Harper's pledges, the cost of fuel shouldn't get in the way of a military presence in the North.

"Everything that goes to the northern reaches of our country is expensive, and that should not impact on our sovereignty," she said.

The military is not saying exactly how many soldiers will be left at Alert, but it insists it will still be able to maintain radio surveillance of the Arctic.
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No more GD spots up in Alert?
I'm just wondering how far this measure will go in saving monies - from not having military people versus civilians - paycheques still need to paid, supplies flown in etc.
And if this last Arctic patrol cost $1.5M - how committed will Canada to be to bolster presence and protect "Internal Waters"?

 

[Armymatters]

Cost of oil has gone significantly up the past couple of months, and it is impacting everyone. And don't expect the price of oil to come back down, unfortunately. 

 

[UberCree]

Geothermal Heating.

Solar Power.

Dog Teams.

Problem solved.  ;D

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Geothermal Heating.

Solar Power.

Dog Teams.

Problem solved. 

Wind power.

Slow-poke nuclear reactor.

There are lots of options beyond flying in diesel fuel...

 

[GAP]

http://www.westmanwindpower.com/home.html

This company is presently building in Manitoba, but more importantly are in talks regarding Indian Reserves and Northern Communities regarding installing standalone units. They would also lend themselves to this issue.

 

[Arctic Acorn]

Wind generators wouldn't be a bad idea at all...solar power, not so much. They only get a few weeks of the stuff a year.

:dontpanic:

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Wind generators wouldn't be a bad idea at all...solar power, not so much. They only get a few weeks of the stuff a year.

In the summer, the sunshines 24 hours a day.  Admittedly, there are about 3 months in the winter where there is no sunlight at all, but still the total number of light hours/year at Alert might make it attractive to put in a solar system.  To my mind, the goal is not to end the requirement to fly diesel in, but to reduce the amount of generator time required over an entire year.  If you could power the station for the summer months on wind and solar alone, how much would that save in BOXTOP flights each year?

 

[Bert]

Granted the rising costs of diesel and the practicality of Boxtop flights could be
considered, it may not outweight the need to keep things simple in an isolated
station.

Setting up and maintaining various supplementary electrical generating systems
like solar or wind would only be a fraction of the overall needs of the station and
its airfield.  Seasonal and environmental stresses on outside equipment, regular
maintenance, central voltage regulation system adaption, proprietary parts, specific
military/civy training, and contractors must be factored into the overall cost. 

The current system is centralized, rotated, within current military means, and provides
the needs/redundancy of the station without over-extention.  New system designs that
increase complexity or provides a higher risk of major failure is not what an isolated
station 800 km from the north pole wants.

Just playing the devil's advocate. 

 

[Centurian1985]

However, if nobody attempts to even try an alternative power solution, we wont know if an alternative solution works!

Just being a devils advocate for the devils advocate... ;D

 

[Bert]

Thats why we have engineers Centurian.  Its great to mull over the introduction of
solar power and alternate sources in Alert.  Before one implements a plan of this
nature in Alert, you'd want to know consequences of the action, the benefits,
the good, the mundane, and the bad before putting the resources to install it.
The "what" as well as the "how". 

CFS Alert is a small very isolated station and not like the urban or rural areas of the
South with a Home Depot around the corner.  If something goes wrong beyond the
capabilities of the staff or major work has to be performed, people and parts have to
get sent up by aircraft.  The loss or interruption of power is one of the most serious
problems for a self-supporting station.  The more urgent the issue, the more
problematic it can become due aircraft and replacement parts availability.  Wind, solar,
hybrid power in an extreme environment are not plug and play and require emergency
as well as routine maintenance.  The issue, if it includes cost benefits, has to maintain
the same service continuity as the current system and not over-extend the resources
of the station staff. 

 

[geo]

I'm not convinced this has anything to do with skimping on the cost of fuel.

2006 technology takes up a lot less staff & space than 1950 technology.... so why keep staff levels at 1950 levels?

Alert is involved in "sigint" (amongst other things) something that is more up CSIS' & other agencies alley than ours....

 

[big_johnson1]

Personally I'm sad. I loved the place. But they have been talking about putting the contracts out to civvies since I first went up there, so it's been coming for a while. I do think solar power would help quite a bit though, if not as a primary source, as a backup to augment the generators currently up there. Even some small wind turbines installed in strategic locations could augment things. Some of the buildings need to be stripped down and reinsulated as well. There are a lot of small fixes that could reduce heating costs. But then again, maybe manning levels are too high for what the station is up there to accomplish.

 

[Bert]

Its hard to say what the government intends for manning levels.  For sure support
jobs could be contracted to civilians but difficult to speculate what the cost savings
would really be compared to the military.  Airfield and road maintenance, vehicles, veh operators,
fire and rescue, kitchen staff, building maintenance, techs would still need to continue, and
the airfield has to be servicable all the time.  I liked it up there too.  Hopefully opportunities
will continue to exist.

 

[Daidalous]

Looks like I am going to have a lonely six months as Zippo up there with the decrease of the station's population, at this rate it will end up the Bar Tender,cook and myself  .......wait that could be fun.

All joking aside I do hope that once the Government tables it's first budget that they set some money aside for Alert, seem a good idea to keep a station already running in the north when you are concerned about it's northern borders.

 

[BernDawg]

I'm not convinced this has anything to do with skimping on the cost of fuel.

2006 technology takes up a lot less staff & space than 1950 technology.... so why keep staff levels at 1950 levels?

Alert is involved in "sigint" (amongst other things) something that is more up CSIS' & other agencies alley than ours....

Actually the manning levels are about 25% of what they were during their peak.  The issue is that the structures need to be maintained and supported as if they were at full manning because the station is crowded during the summer (we actually had people sleeping in the gym last summer) and all the systems are still there and operating if , almost, totally automatic.

     The station comes under CFIOG.  It's a signals based int thing.

Daidalous, enjoy your tour.  I did.

 

[Edward Campbell]

...
Alert is involved in "sigint" (amongst other things) something that is more up CSIS' & other agencies alley than ours....

SIGINT is not CSIS business, not at all.  It is the domain of CSE which is an agency of DND reporting to the Privy Council Office.

 

[geo]

I stand (err...sit) corrected

 

[Edward Campbell]

SIGINT is not CSIS business, not at all.  It is the domain of CSE which is an agency of DND reporting to the Privy Council Office.

I probably should have expanded that just a bit.

The plan, when CSIS was formed out of the wreckage of the RCMP’s counter-intelligence service, was that CSIS would be a fairly pure counter-intelligence agency – both by preventing security breaches by plugging holes before they could be exploited (unglamorous but essential work) and by tracking down and closing down (by methods other than legal arrests and trials) enemy intelligence operations in Canada.  CSE would remain the main intelligence gathering agency and SIGINT would remain the primary source of most secret intelligence.  DND (and DFAIT (now)) would also run other intelligence gathering operations for HUMINT and imagery intelligence.  The principle, which was being observed, is that there should be a wall between intelligence gathering and counter-intelligence agencies – with a steering group using information from each to ‘drive’ the other.

(As an aside, back in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, if my memory is OK, CSIS named, publicly, France as the operator of the biggest hostile intelligence gathering operation in Canada – aimed squarely at Canada’s burgeoning and very advanced high-tech industry.)

Post 9/11 the government-of-the-day made certain terrorist acts offences under the criminal code which put the RCMP back in the intelligence and counter-intelligence games, again, but this time with all the baggage which the law obliges.  It is not clear, to me anyway, if this is going to make matters substantially worse.

Nothing should prevent CSIS from conducting foreign operations to further their domestic, counter-intelligence mission.  Equally, nothing should, in my opinion, prevent CSE from gathering intelligence in Canada – from communications between Canadians – to further its intelligence gathering mission.

DND should have active HUMINT, imagery and other technical intelligence groups working wherever in the world our (your) military intelligence chief thinks necessary – and within acceptable risks.  Ditto some other government departments.

I reiterate what I have said before: I, personally think that the US has gone down the wrong road.  I abhor super, collective intelligence agencies.  I think collective intelligence agencies are to intelligence gathering what collective farms were to agricultural productivity.  I like a proliferation of small, independent, competing agencies – accepting, as I do, that they will trip over one another, now and again, sometimes at some considerable ‘cost’ and they will leave gaps.  I think the overlaps, gaps and bumps are worth the price.  Fortunately, I guess, I’m not in charge of the security and intelligence secretariat in the PCO.