Both the PCs and NDP are happy to see that the contract has finally been awarded for repairs to the province’s fifth waterbomber, but are both questioning the extensive delays to get it done.

The aircraft has been out of commission since 2018 when it was damaged during an incident on the Burin Peninsula.

The critic for forestry, Pleaman Forsey, criticizes the amount of time that it has taken for government to take action on repairing the aircraft, claiming they have been “flip-flopping” between selling it and fixing it.

Now, says Forsey, the province is staring down another forest fire season without an operational fifth water bomber.

He says it has taken government seven years to start the repair process. He believes the forest fires in central Newfoundland a couple of years ago, and the fires in Labrador last summer, were a “wake-up call” for government.

NDP MHA Jordan Brown, who has long advocated for the bomber to be fixed, says government shouldn’t be “patting themselves on the back” for awarding the contract; they should be “ashamed” that it took this long to do it.

“They couldn’t make a decision, but in that time we’ve had, you know, last year, 80 forest fires, (the) majority of them in Labrador, we had the largest evacuation in this province’s history.”

“We almost lost one of the most valuable assets that belongs to this province when the fire hit Churchill Falls, we have a massive amount of railway infrastructure, mining infrastructure, communities, all that put in danger, and in that time it took them this long to make a decision on repairing a waterbomber. It’s absolutely ludicrous.”