Rent-a-Hole

A friend was telling me the other day that he had heard a rumour that the American Military were not very happy with our decision to move their back-up NORAD station to the unsecured building above ground at CFB North Bay. The decision to move the Hole to the surface in Winnipeg, he heard, was made when our Jean Jacques Blais, then Minister of Defence, lost his seat in the Nipissing riding. It was some kind of payback for the voters in the riding voting Conservative, but that would be playing politics and I found it hard to believe.

This all happened long before 9-11, but in the years since then, the Americans have become much more conscious of their security. That they have just upgraded their underground facility at Cheyenne Mountain while we are dismantling ours (along with the rest of our military) would rightly concern them. Having yet another exposed flank, this time to their north, secured only by customs officers may not sit well with the boys and girls in the Pentagon or Homeland Security.

The rumour went on to say that they might like to lease the Hole and a bit of surrounding property just like they did with Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. This would give them a fallback position in case something happens at the Hole in Colorado. At least until they get the Star Wars system working, which may take more than a few years.

They may have been stalling the move from our underground in the back rooms by telling Bill Gates not to sign on with our Mayor, but when they heard that the Defence Department was thinking of closing the complete base at North Bay, they must have had nightmares. That this was more political payback is surely just another rumour.

If we can get a tenant for the Hole we may not have to meet the environmental laws and restore the hole to its natural state. And we have had enough environmental problems at the Rail Lands without trying to restore a hole in the rock because we used all that rock on our waterfront.

Perhaps we ought to be approaching the Pentagon and selling them on the idea that they could rent the Hole from us. We could even offer them free access to our long runway in exchange for them staffing our ultra modern, although ugly airport terminal with American Customs officers, because heaven knows we’ll never get Canadian ones away up here north of Barrie. And if they could bring along a couple of those step things so people could get in and out of any airplane bigger than a Dash 8, if would be really nice of them.

Not only could we give them access to a runway long enough to accommodate Air Force One, but the Prez could use the Hole as a hideout in case Camp David comes under attack. The more I think of it, the more I like it – rent the Hole and some buildings at the former CFB North Bay to the American military. We could probably even talk them into looking after their own infrastructure and services in lieu of rent.

It would make good business sense to contract with a growth business like the US military instead of some data company that could leave us in the lurch for a country with lower costs. The number at the Pentagon is 1- 436-743-2874. It’s a toll-free number.