54 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

Hopefully they had a bit more than the required 60-day notice, to save up.  3 months off over late summer would be great for some.

[Mike K.]

Starts in July, I think, and it's only three months. The crews will go on EI for that period of time, I'm sure.

 

Viking needs to kill production to allow sales to catch up. Whether or not this means they'll start back up in three months as planned depends on sales, I suppose.

[spanky123]

Hopefully they have sales in the pipeline now as you would think that it would be hard to acquire and close new deals in 90 days over the summer.

[jonny]

Tough news for Viking staff. This is 1/2 of the workforce.

 

http://www.timescolo...tion-1.20294513

 

To be honest, most trades people are laid off pretty routinely. Construction and shipyard workers are two local examples.

[Bingo]

Hopefully they have sales in the pipeline now as you would think that it would be hard to acquire and close new deals in 90 days over the summer.

 

Maybe they could build a water bomber version of the Otter.

[exc911ence]

Maybe they could build a water bomber version of the Otter.

 

Legacy Twin Otters have been equipped with water-bombing floats for years.

 

[spanky123]

To be honest, most trades people are laid off pretty routinely. Construction and shipyard workers are two local examples.

 

Although a construction worker properly has a greater chance of finding a job locally than an aircraft engineer.

[LJ]

Maybe they could build a water bomber version of the Otter.

They just bought the rights for parts and spares for the CL415 purpose built water bomber with an eye to producing the aircraft itself.

Unfortunately all the work would be done in Calgary, but they expect to immediately hire 900 new employees if they go ahead with producing the aircraft.

[jonny]

Although a construction worker properly has a greater chance of finding a job locally than an aircraft engineer.

 

I assume these type of layoffs to be of the front line assembly and production line worker variety and not head office types, since this is only a three month layoff. Although, we do not have that type of detail. I'd imagine the lead time to hire a decent aircraft engineer is longer than three months. .

[Bingo]

I assume these type of layoffs to be of the front line assembly and production line worker variety and not head office types, since this is only a three month layoff.

Although, we do not have that type of detail. I'd imagine the lead time to hire a decent aircraft engineer is longer than three months. .

 

Unless we are about to have WW III.

[Victoria Watcher]

Just as it’s written on a poster on the wall at the Viking Air building in North Saanich, it “all starts here.”

 

“We manufacture the Twin Otter aircraft from this facility manufacture all the detailed parts,” said Dominique Spragg, vice president of strategic planning with Viking Air.

 

Before a plane is assembled, each of its parts is precisely made in a warehouse; some hammered, others measured and all of them inspected.

 

But Viking Air was not always in the manufacturing business. When it began in 1970, it was a maintenance and repair facility for aircraft but over the last 20 years, it’s developed into a manufacturer of not only parts but now full aircrafts.

 

 

 

 

https://www.cheknews...ing-air-605153/

[Victoria Watcher]

A manufacturing plant in North Saanich will be busy building parts for Europe’s next generation of firefighting planes until the next decade.

 

Neil Sweeney, De Havilland Canada’s vice-president for corporate affairs, said the company’s North Saanich operation is expanding after the company committed to building the next-generation DHC-515 firefighting aircraft. “We’re certainly ramping up now as we get more orders in the books.”

 

The local employee count doubled to about 300 in recent months, he said.

 

Part of that rapid expansion has been enabled by an in-house training academy, he said. “If you don’t have aerospace experience but you’re technically minded, we’ll provide the ­training to get you onto the floor relatively quickly.”

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...-planes-8538238

 

 

 

 

Odd that the article is all about the DHC-515 but does not include a photo of the plane.

 

So here you go:

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 April 2024 - 03:44 AM.

[Blair M.]

The owner of De Havilland Canada, who is also the second wealthiest person in Canada, the #1 wealthiest woman in Canada, and something like the 101st wealthiest person in the world lives here in Saanich. Sherry Brydson.

[Victoria Watcher]

The owner of De Havilland Canada, who is also the second wealthiest person in Canada, the #1 wealthiest woman in Canada, and something like the 101st wealthiest person in the world lives here in Saanich. Sherry Brydson.

She is the granddaughter of media tycoon Roy Thomson and became an heiress to the family fortune when he died.

https://dailyhive.co...llionaire-index

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 April 2024 - 06:25 AM.

[AllseeingEye]

Yup these guys a are a local good news business story to be sure.

 

Too bad Canada doesn't get off the pot and start thinking seriously about updating and upgrading our rag-tag wildfire air fleets which of course like the military or coast guard infrastructures are generally antiquated and inadequate for the job, especially in a warming climate, where the raging wildfires of 2023 and earlier are likely to become the norm going forward.

 

Like everything else of course the feds waited and waited and kicked the can down the road for years and now even if they want to acquire new air resources for the task - from a Canadian manufacturer right in their own back yard no less - they have to lineup behind the Europeans because unlike us they prioritize these things and learn from previous experiences, i.e. the wildfires of 2022 and 2023.

 

Also our shared model of firefighting between Ottawa and the provinces and even between provinces is ridiculously inefficient and unwieldy, and moreover tasking an already horribly overburdened, utterly undermanned and underfunded Armed Forces to pitch in in the absence of a dedicated national firefighting organization, is just begging for trouble and only compounds the problem. Like having a modern and effective military or coast guard presumably a national firefighting strategy was calculated by the backroom mandarins to be insuficiently sexy nor provide enough "pop" with the electorate, ergo was not deemed a subject that will get the politicians re-elected. So off to the backburner it was conisigned.

 

Given that we have the largest boreal forest on the planet it seems to me rather than routinely depending on firefighting resources from places like Portugal and Chile to assist us WE should be the world's subject matter experts on the 'how-to' for large scale forest wildfires including how to properly anticipate the apprpopriate firefighting resources required and have them on hand in our inventory anytime anywhere, wherever and whenever needed. But, naturally, its not a priority - it doesn't offer up sweet and gooey feel-good opportunities to serve up bafflegab like "diverse" and "inclusive" - and therefore we stagger along haphazardly with grossly underfunded resources and no actual national strategy for dealing with a problem that is certain to only get worse over time:

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...fleet-1.6873561