The federal government announced Friday it has “conditionally” sold 10 retired military planes to a B.C. aviation company that will convert the aircraft to fight wildfires across the country.
The announcement comes amid growing calls for Canada to update and expand its fleet of firefighting aircraft as it contends with another devastating wildfire season.
Stephen Fuhr, secretary of state for defence procurement, said it will take Coulson Aviation in Port Alberni about 20,000 hours of labour to convert each CC-130H Hercules plane for aerial firefighting purposes.
That timeline means the first planes should be ready to re-enter service within 12 months, he told reporters in Abbotsford, B.C.
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“These Hercs will begin a second life in that role, in a new role that’s increasingly important to Canada and around the world,” he said.
“That is something to clap about.”
The CC-130H Hercules has traditionally been used for military transports, evacuations from natural emergencies, including wildfires, as well as search and rescue operations.
They have been steadily replaced by Lockheed Martin’s more modern CC-130J-class Hercules planes.
The 10 CC-130H aircraft are part of a fleet of 12 that were retired by the Royal Canadian Air Force in January.
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The remaining two will be displayed at bases and museums across Canada.
The sale remains conditional, pending the completion of contractual arrangements and applicable Transport Canada regulatory approvals.
The government did not release how much money the aircraft were sold for, with Fuhr saying it would be “inappropriate” to detail a commercial transaction.
In June, the Senate committee on agriculture and forestry released a report calling on the government to fund a new national fleet of modern firefighting aircraft, among 15 recommendations to improve wildfire response.
Ottawa announced in May it would lease 10 aircraft — four air tankers, one spotter plane and five heavy lift helicopters — for 150 days starting in June, but senators contended that wouldn’t be sufficient.
—With files from Global’s Amy Judd and The Canadian Press
@NDP supporter
Holy Moley. I give you one thing dude. You got guts to openly show your support for a party that held this country hostage for the sake of Justin F*ckin Trudeau for 10 f*ckin years! Say hey to that turbined traitor when you see it!
NDP supporter – don’t you have a terrorist to support or something?
Scared of shadows:
“All comments should require the name and address of the commenter to ensure legitimacy.”
Says a violent liberal stain that doesn’t do the same.
Obviously, drones should only be used for arial photograpghy and bombs…
All comments should require the name and address of the commenter to ensure legitimacy.
Now we have conservative conspiracy theorists thinking different commenters are one and the same person. Conspiracy theories abound with conservatives like with the Covid vaccine, invermectin, Brookfield, etc. Maybe it’s hard for them to see through the rage when Poilievre winds them up all the time🤷♂️ . Both the liberal and conservative party are done
Don’t forget our favorite liberal commentor here is Ben or Benoit or Benyemen or whatever variation of Ben(dover) he can use.
Ben
August 7, 2026 at 2:38 pm
Another thoughtful move by the Carney administration.
Hahahahahahahah! Really? Thoughtful? F*CK U BEN! TO LITTLE TO LATE AND REAKING OF CORRUPTION! Carney can take his planes and shove them up whatever dark hole he just pulled them out of.
Sugar Daddy Doug should buy one to haul his fat azz around while Elbowing Up across Canada and the U.S..
does this money go into liberal bank accounts? Or there must be a profit to be made
How is it ‘inappropriate’ to divulge what are the funds agreed upon to be received for Canadian taxpayers property. This reeks of corrupt business practice.
Why not be transparent? It’s usually crooks who want to hide.
@ bwanna
Uhm 50 bucks an hour? Car repair shops are $150 or more.
Try $500 an hour for aviation techs.
20,000 hours of labor @ an all-in labor rate of ~$50/hr === $1 million each not counting hardware.
But this still doesn’t make them true firefighting aircraft…
Hey, last weeks “experts”:
Looks like there is more Canada can do, eh?
As always, Liberal gov, years too late with a pittance for help. Yet we will send billions for bombs and bullets on a frigging heartbeat!
F*CK I HATE THIS LIBERAL REGIME!!
Your right Mr jones they made pontoons in 2023. Would be cool to have mars bombers 2.0.
How much was BC’s forest fire prevention budget cut in the past several years?
Never to be replaced.
Oh that’s a start need about 90 more
canada should be donating these planes; they will benefit every Canadian
Benoît .you are nothing but a brown nosing pos
@Benoit. Your nose is brown and how did the boots taste?
Notice pretty much all promises by the Liberals are never realized. I thought they bought water bomber long ago?
Great to see! Not everything needs to be reacted to cynically and sarcastically folks.
Increasingly, Canadians are wondering, given the excellent policies from the Carney team, if Einstein has been reincarnated! Go Team Canada!
It is Coulson not Colson.
Will there be tampons in the men’s washroom? No, really. It’s a day late and a decade short. Your liberal predecessor really screwed us. Try harder, mark..
Nobody is more capable than them. We are saved!
Hundrends millions of dollars was given to Ukraine, instead used to fight fires in Canada !
Where is all the water bombers Trudeau promised?
Good news. These planes will help with next years fighting. As climate change continues to take effect it’s only going to get more important to expand our resources.
Canada should have a huge fleet of fire fighting planes ready to go. I hope they’re designed to fill up in lakes and the ocean. I saw one of the Mars fight a fire once and it was amazing compared to a helicopter with a bucket.
Who edits these articles? “military transports” no plural, you must be french. It suffices to say CC130 Hercules – it’s an aeroplane. We’re not from another planet. If you think your readers are that stupid, use aircraft (again no plural) “plane” is for children.
I hope they closely inspect the spars – Australia & the Americans have lost Hercs to spar failures (the wing tearing away in flight).
Sells? SELLS??? To fight forest fires on Crown Lands? The Federal Government should have gave them the planes.
A drop in the bucket for the large deficits Carney is racking up.
A good idea, I am sure the Liberals will back out or tack on unworkable condition like they must be wheelchair accessible. Etc, etc
Another thoughtful move by the Carney administration.
Does that come with access to the Aviation Museum so they can scavenger for parts