Wednesday, September 15,
1999 Military exceeds budget by tracking
migrant ships
$80,000-a-day
mission
Keith Fraser
The
Province
Halfway into its fiscal year, the military will soon go over
budget with its stepped-up patrols for Chinese migrants.
Long-range Aurora aircraft have increased their patrols from two
or three times a week to daily.
They are expected to continue the $80,000-a-day missions for
another month to six weeks.
The military had budgeted about $6-million for 753 hours of
surveillance over the Pacific Ocean in the fiscal year 1999-2000,
but now expects to reach that number by month's end -- a full six
months before its fiscal year ends on March 31.
Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Bigelow said when the Auroras began
tracking the migrant ships in July, they were well within budget.
But the increased demand for patrols has changed everything.
"No one anticipated the level of activity we've seen," said
Lt.-Col. Bigelow, director of operations for Maritime Air Component
Pacific. "We've looked for a reallocation of resources within DND's
budget to cover us off."
He added: "We'll just keep flying as long as the threat is there,
as long as the problem exists of the migrants."
It costs about $8,000 an hour for the dozen-member crews to go up
for a 10-hour patrol covering an area off the coast the size of
B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan put together. Those costs include
$1,000 an hour for fuel, maintenance costs and flight pay.
RELATED SITES:
(Each link opens a new window)
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
The brand-new white paper on immigration policy
Statistics Canada: Immigration and
Citizenship
Statistics from the 1996 national census that look at where
Canadians came from.
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