Sask. NDP say new water bomber grounded due to lack of pilots, province says training to resume in July
Conair Dash 8-400AT Airtankers are parked on the tarmac in Abbotsford, B.C., Friday, April. 26, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
The Saskatchewan NDP says the province nearly lost one of its brand-new water bombers when flames breached the La Ronge airport earlier this month – due to no qualified pilots being able to fly it.
Citing publicly available flight information, the Opposition NDP says the Conair Dash 8-Q400AT airtanker was delivered to the province on May 30 – flying from Conair's facility in Abbotsford, B.C. to the La Ronge area.
The bomber has not flown since. The NDP says this is because the province has not hired or trained a pilot to operate it.
Furthermore, the NDP say that sources claim the plane was nearly lost on June 2 – as personnel had to physically push it to another area of the La Ronge airport to prevent it from being lost to the flames.
'While people were fleeing their homes and communities were burning, the Sask. Party left a brand new and badly needed air tanker sitting on the tarmac,' NDP MLA Nicole Sarauer said during an event Monday morning.
'The moment this plane arrived; the government should have brought it into action dumping water on the fires burning our communities.'
Sask. water bomber flight log
(Courtesy: Saskatchewan NDP)
Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety Tim McLeod said he first learned of the NDP's accusations on Monday, and called it 'unfortunate' that the Opposition is choosing to 'politicize a wildfire state of emergency and tragedy.'
'This is not a situation where we had resources that were available that were left on the table or in this case left on the tarmac,' McLeod said.
According to minister, due to the plane arriving once the state of emergency was declared – a decision was made to reallocate the pilots that were training to fly the new aircraft.
'The first of those planes did arrive after we had already declared a state of emergency on or about May 30, the reality of the situation is we were already in a state of emergency, the pilots that had been training to operate that plane had received all of the simulator training that they could until that time,' McLeod said.
However, he added that to comply with Transport Canada regulations – the requirement is that the pilots would still need to train in the physical aircraft before it could be used.
'The operational decision was made not to remove those four pilots from active duty fighting fires and protecting our communities so that they could train on the new plane, but rather to continue protecting our communities and saving lives,' McLeod said.
He added that it remains a primary focus to have the four pilots complete the training and to use the aircraft during the 2025 wildfire season.
Responding to the question of why the province couldn't hire other personnel to pilot the new plane – SPSA vice president Steve Roberts said that all available pilots trained to operate the Conair Dash 8-Q400AT airtanker, are currently doing so.
'Everybody who's certified to fly one of those aircraft in a firefighting role is flying that aircraft in a firefighting role,' he said.
'That's the bottom line is these are not generic positions. These are specialized positions on a specialized aircraft type they can't be hired off the street.'
Rogers says the agency's training program is expected to continue in July.
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