US embassy cable - 04HALIFAX210

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HALIFAX 000210 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
JOINT STAFF FOR US SEC PJBD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MCAP, MARR, MASS, PREL, ECON, CA, Newfoundland and Labrador, NATO 
SUBJECT: ATLANTIC CANADA:  THE FUTURE OF 5 WING GOOSE BAY 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
1.  (U)  SUMMARY:   The Ambassador recently met with civic 
leaders and military officers at 5 Wing Goose Bay and the 
adjoining community of Happy Valley during a trip to Labrador. 
Community leaders and the Premier of the province are concerned 
that declining use of the military base at Goose Bay by NATO 
allies will ultimately result in its closure, depriving the 
community of its major source of jobs.  END SUMMARY. 
 
THE BASE 
 
2.  (U)  5 Wing Goose Bay was built and staffed primarily by 
U.S. forces during the Second World War and through much of the 
Cold War.  It has been used by NATO allies as a flight training 
area for decades, although in recent years allies have begun 
cutting back the amount of training they do there, and some have 
announced plans to leave altogether.  The base boasts two major 
runways -- 11,000 and 9,000 feet -- and has a training area of 
about 130,000 square kilometers (more than 50,000 square miles) 
where flying is allowed as low as 100 feet.  In an arrangement 
unique to Canada, virtually all operations of the base have been 
privatized, with a contractor responsible for all operations and 
maintenance except search and rescue and the Canadian Forces 
contingent reduced to a skeleton 70 personnel, except when 
CF-18s are temporarily deployed to the base on a NORAD mission. 
 
3.  (U)  As changing technology and declining budgets have 
altered allied training needs, the GOC seems to have realized 
belatedly that it had priced Goose Bay out of the market. 
Better facilities, better training opportunities and a more 
reasonable cost sharing arrangement have caused foreign 
governments to shift Canadian training operations to 4 Wing Cold 
Lake, Alberta, leaving Goose Bay with fewer and fewer clients. 
The GOC initial response to this was ambivalent, leaving many 
with the impression that it intended to close or mothball the 
base.  Recently, however, the GOC has begun to try to market 
Goose Bay's strategic location and advantages not only for 
fighter-bomber flight training but for special operations 
exercises, tactical air transport training, and cold weather 
trials of new equipment, among other things.  The GOC has also 
revised its approach to fees, adopting a "hotel" approach with 
fixed costs rather than amortizing all of the base's annual 
costs over the number of sorties flown by allies during the 
training season.  U.S. National Guard and Reserve units are 
among the allies being targeted for a modest marketing campaign. 
 
 
THE PROBLEM 
 
4.  (SBU)  Goose Bay clearly has some advantages as a training 
location.  The GOC's efforts to market the base, however, are 
not helped by its failure to use it itself, something akin to a 
chef not eating in his own restaurant.  A senior Canadian Air 
Force officer at 5 Wing, after nodding throughout a briefing on 
the base's advantages, spent much of a private conversation 
describing how Cold Lake was superior in many respects because 
the GOC has made the investment to create more modern training 
facilities there.  Goose Bay is the main gateway to Labrador for 
civilian aircraft, and would still be needed for commercial use 
regardless of any military use of the base; the military 
presence, however, has created far more jobs than the civilian 
use of the airport. 
 
5.  (U)  Newfoundland-Labrador Premier Danny Williams, in Happy 
Valley-Goose Bay (HVGB) for much of the Ambassador's visit, made 
it clear that the province is working closely with the community 
to keep the base open.  Among other things, Williams has taken a 
delegation to Europe to meet with NATO allies about their 
training needs and to see what the province could do to improve 
their chances of continuing to train in Labrador.  He said that 
he had been encouraged by a visit to HVGB in March 2004 by 
then-Defense Minister David Pratt and Prime Minister Paul 
Martin.  Martin, according to Williams and other community 
leaders, spoke of the need to provide more GOC support to the 
base.  Subsequently, they said, the Air Force became much more 
upbeat in presentations about the base.  However, that has so 
far not stopped allies from announcing plans to pull out, and 
the GOC has yet to deliver on any tangible assistance for the 
base or the community. 
 
WHERE TO NEXT? 
 
6.  (U)  During his discussions with civic leaders the 
Ambassador noted that in his own experience with base 
realignment in the U.S. it was vital to get the private sector 
involved and to have all members of the community speaking with 
one voice.  This the community of HVGB had clearly done. 
Premier Williams pointed out, in the context of the Ambassador's 
remarks about the need to all pull together as one team, that 
the federal government now had to step up to the plate as well 
and do more to show that it was committed to Goose Bay's 
continued viability as a military training facility. 
 
7.  (U)  Although there is talk of increasing tourism and the 
economic benefits that will flow from development of  the 
Voisey's Bay nickel deposits and the Lower Churchill Falls 
hydroelectric potential, these are long-term projects.  In the 
short to medium term the community sees little option but to 
pursue continued military training at 5 Wing as the foundation 
on which to build a more diversified economy. 
 
COMMENT 
 
8.  (SBU)  In some ways the situation of Happy Valley-Goose Bay 
is a variant of a common story in the remoter parts of Canada: 
the closing of a mine or industry which was a town's main 
employer.  While the HVGB community seems to be doing an 
excellent job of pulling together and thinking creatively about 
how the base can be revived, a tangible commitment by the GOC to 
the survival of 5 Wing seems to be an essential element in 
keeping it operational.  In the longer term the development of 
Labrador's considerable energy and mineral resources will 
provide new economic stimulus, although at a cost to the 
wilderness that surrounds the few human settlements in the 
region.  END COMMENT. 
 
HILL