The estimated program cost is 10.4 billion Canadian dollars, of which just under 6 billion dollars is the purchase price of the planes. (The program cost includes weapons, training simulators, spare parts and renovations at the Air Force bases in British Columbia and Nova Scotia where the planes will be stationed.) As with the 1980s vintage CP-140 Aurora planes they will replace, the main duty of the newcomers will be tracking submarines. But, as is the case now, they will most likely perform a number of other tasks ranging from tracking drug smuggling in the Caribbean to monitoring pollution in Canada. In particular, they wanted it to consider a proposed marine surveillance plane from Montreal-based Bombardier.

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Persons: —, François, Doug Ford of, François Blanchet Organizations: Boeing, Air Force, Titan, Yves, Bloc, Bombardier Locations: British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Caribbean, Canada, United States, Britain, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Quebec, Doug Ford of Ontario, Montreal