Tribunal won't hear complaint over chopper deal
Canadian Press
HALIFAX — A federal tribunal has rejected a company's request to hear a complaint that raises questions about Ottawa's handling of a $5-billion contract to replace the military's fleet of aging Sea King helicopters.
AgustaWestland Inc., the leading company in an Italian-British consortium, originally brought allegations of political interference to the Federal Court on Sept. 1.
However, the court told the company it had to first ask the Canadian International Trade Tribunal if it would hear the case.
On Thursday, the tribunal declined, saying the company took too long to file its arguments.
But a lawyer for AgustaWestland says the battle is far from over.
Gordon Cameron said he'll bring the case back to Federal Court on Dec. 4.
AgustaWestland's bid for its Cormorant helicopters to replace the Sea Kings was originally rejected this summer in favour of a bid by rival Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, based in the United States.
Since then, the company has taken legal action to force Ottawa to hand it the deal or start the decade-long process over again.
In its 19-page Federal Court application, filed Sept. 1, the company charged that the government's bid evaluation was "biased, unfair and contrary to the rules of the procurement.''
It also accused the ruling Liberals of deliberately skewing the selection to avoid the "embarrassment'' of picking its EH-101 helicopter, which the Liberal government had rejected as an unaffordable luxury in 1993.
The documents contend that Sikorsky's helicopter faces a major redesign, and won't be ready in time to meet the government's four-year delivery deadline.
None of these allegations has been proven in court.
Lloyd Noseworthy, a spokesman for Sikorsky (NYSE:UTC), rejected the allegations.
"We know what it takes, and we will deliver the first aircraft in November 2008,'' he said in an interview. "We will be there on time.''
The contract requires Sikorsky to build 28 helicopters and begin delivering one per month starting in November 2008 -- four years after the deal was signed.
Defence Minister Bill Graham and Public Works Minister Scott Brison announced the government's decision to buy the Sikorsky H-92 -- later dubbed the Cyclone -- last July before an audience of Sea King pilots in Nova Scotia.
They said buying the Cyclone was a better bargain than purchasing the larger, three-engine EH-101 Cormorant.
Under the contract, the last of the Cyclones is expected be delivered in 2011 -- almost 50 years after the first Sea King took to the air over Shearwater.
Meanwhile, the existing Sea King fleet -- involved in four fatal crashes that have claimed at least seven lives over 10 years -- will require about 30 hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time.
The contract is the latest step in a saga that began in the 1980s, when the Defence Department set out to replace the CH-124 Sea King -- also a Sikorsky product.