Article content

Melissa Kent, the CBC correspondent at the United Nations, has raised some interesting points in her article today about Canada’s contribution to the Mali mission.

Talks will take place today between UN and Canadian officials about the contribution.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Are 2 RCAF Chinooks enough for the Mali mission? Back to video

Canada will supply two Chinook helicopters and four CH-146 Griffon helicopters to the UN mission to Mali. The UN, meanwhile, is expecting that two Chinooks will be available at any given time — which means Canada would need to send more than two to Mali, Kent points out. ”A helicopter is not like a car. They have planned maintenance,” a UN official familiar with the talks told Kent. ”Therefore, in order to have two available on a daily basis you would need three.”

At least three.

Whether the Canadian government acknowledges this remains to be seen.

The Mali mission was announced March 19 by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, with Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance standing by to answer questions. The “press conference” lasted probably a whole 10 minutes. There was no technical briefing to provide details of the mission.