Bombardier would do well to look to their long-term goals; the potential of the Canadian aviation industry is great, and the F35 program got jack to do with it.
The SAAB Gripen, for example, would be built in Canada, maintained in Canada, and integrates with the SAAB Global Eye AEW&C, which, by the way, is built on the Bombardier Global 6000 aircraft!
Maybe bombardier should have made a credible proposal to build a jet in Canada, instead of whining about it after the fact.
While I agree, to a point, it is like the auto industry. CUSMA allowed parts to be made in the cheapest way possible. Moving it all into once place defeats the production line, one plant can be focused on the dew hikey of many different types of jets while another can be focused on the thing a ma bob of many different types of jets while another can be focused on the assembly of a certain type of Jet.
In the modern world we depend on just in time production, having one plant do one thing is a failure in the system. If we had many plants in Canada I could agree that it should be done all in Canada but that is a failure in the modern production line.
They aren’t wrong to be concerned, this absolutely will wreak havoc on their business.
But also we cannot expect that their business in the US was poised to survive regardless. Theirs is the business the Americans are most specifically looking to move to their domestic manufacturing. Bombardier is fucked but they were fucked on November of last year.
So the question is not if we can keep their US contracts up, but what else they can be making with their facilities and workers. Crisis and change can be hard but it can be opportunity too.
Seize the reigns, Bombardier. You’ve got a good seat at the table and can contribute positively towards how we reshape our country’s industry and defence.
Given their track record, Bombardier will probably not seize the reigns and will instead lobby for a government bailout. When it receives it, it will forget that it happened, decide it owes nothing to the Canadian government or populace, and not use the money to improve its products or strategies whatsoever.
I feel confident in saying that it doesn’t really deserve to survive. If continuing business was so important, it shouldn’t have fucked up so badly for so long. I was living in Kitchener when the GRT’s first LRT line was constructed and finished; Bombardier was wholly incompetent and that was a relatively small-scale transit project. There are many more examples of shitty product and business deals across industries in Canada and around the world.
“Cancelling the F-35s might be a good idea, but we need to think about it,” Bombardier Chief Executive Officer Eric Martel told a business audience in Montreal. “We have contracts with the Pentagon. Will there be reciprocity there?”
“Trump isn’t wrong on everything,” Martel said. “We’ve been hiding behind our big brother for a while, and we’re completely dependent on him militarily.”
The CEO seems like he’s on Trump’s side here. Why bother helping him out when he thinks we deserve the poor treatment from Trump? Let it die. If it’s really such an important company with important connections, sell their assets and transfer non-executive personnel to a (preferably nationalized) company that actually deserves a chance.
I’m not knowledgeable enough on this topic to prove you wrong or even argue — but Bombardier have an opportunity to try do so.
If they can’t, we must act urgently because if they won’t use their factories and their workers, someone else can. Because we have a lot to do.
Bombardier has had an “opportunity” for decades. I’m sick of the feds letting it have my and other taxpayers’ money so that its executives can pop more champagne in some hidden room. Simping for corporations just means fetishizing being screwed over.
I’m not giving up on our manufacturing sector, I’m just giving up on Bombardier. Someone fucking has to.
This very much sounds like a bombardier issue. Looks like they need to start working more closely with the EU.
So Canada should just ignore all the stuff the US is doing, reinforce their economy by buying from them, and pretend there aren’t risks regarding the possibility of the US being able to remotely interfere with the jets they sell? As if control over others isn’t something the US would ever try to do.
The best machine in the world isn’t worth shit if its reliability when needed is called into question, and much less when the seller can’t be trusted with that much power. That’s buying a few jets by selling sovereignty with extra steps - quite the bargain for the US and their current aspirations.
Buy from reliable allies, such as the EU, and if total defensive independence is a must start building the needed framework to develop a competitive jet building industry so that Canada can build its own by the time these ones approach EoL. Main point, avoid the US jets.
It’s your patriotic duty to pad Bombardier profits.
Yeah, it can backfire to Bombardier though, not Canada
Ideally any replacement would be built in Canada likely by Bombardier. It will obviously be a painful pivot but this could be great for Bombardier and Canada’s aviation industry
Pirate and 3d print it.
You wouldn’t download a jet.
I would absolutely download a mf jet.
It’d be fucking awesome to pirate a jet. Like the culmination of my life’s work. I’m in.
You bring the jet fuel; I’ve got a ton of PLA+ in stock already. What could go wrong?
