Defence Minister favoured trading landing rights for access to military base
Defence Minister Peter MacKay publicly acknowledged that Canada “has some work to do” to fix the broken relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Thursday. After Ottawa refused to grant the country’s airlines the right to land more passenger aircraft in Canada in October, the UAE booted Canada’s military from its soil. The base, Camp Mirage, was used as a staging ground for the war in Afghanistan. MacKay was in favour of giving up landing rights to keep the base where it was. Canada is now using bases in Germany and Cyprus instead. It has also negotiated with Qatar about the possibility of a new base. The dispute has cost Canada an estimated $300 million.