Conservatives' defence promises not good enough
If only Liberal Senator Colin Kenny (who knows more about defence than any other Canadian politician) were Minister of National Defence. (The sixth and seventh paras of this post have been shifted, for emphasis, from their places in the Senator's column.)
The new Conservative government has put its mouth behind the revitalization of the Canadian Forces. Bravo...
...Anyone who takes the time to parse the situation knows that what is being offered still doesn't measure up to what is going to be needed.
We're going to come up at least $4 billion a year short -- and probably much more -- even if the Conservatives come through with what they appear to be promising...
The Senate Committee on National Security and Defence argued in its September 2005 report that the defence budget should be $25 to $35 billion by 2011-12 -- compared to the $19 billion that it would have climbed to under the Martin government's plan. The Conservatives have promised an additional $5.3 billion over five years. If an extrapolation (for which there is no firm commitment) were to hold, the Conservatives' 2011-12 military budget would be about $21 billion.
That's $4 billion short of what will be needed to fund the work that Gen. Hillier says is required...
Then there's pork-barrelling. It is worrisome that the Conservatives did what so many political parties have done in election campaigns over the years -- buy seats by promising people that their military bases won't be closed, redundant or not. Well, some of them are redundant. They're sucking money from the military budget that should be spent elsewhere. Providing an economic base for these communities shouldn't be DND's job. That is the role of departments such as industry...
Governments tend to go weak-kneed when it comes to making decisions that might antagonize voters. But somebody has to do what needs to be done.
Recruiting is a huge problem. Gen. Hillier told the committee that the recruiting process is broken. First the Liberals, and now the Conservatives, have promised significant (if inadequate) increases in the regular Forces. Yet last September recruiters were only hitting 76 per cent of the quota needed to simply replace current attrition...
...The average length of time it takes to acquire a piece of major equipment, under the current system, is 14 to 16 years. That may be hard to believe, but it's true...
Fixing the Canadian military is going to take money and more. Prime Minister Harper has said some encouraging things, but is he really going to give Gen. Hillier what he needs to keep Canadians safe?
We'll see.
Senator Colin Kenny was chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence for the past five years. The committee published 14 reports over that period. E-mail: kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca
Update: In his first speech as Minister of National Defence Mr O'Connor provided perishingly little in the way of detail on strengthening the Canadian Forces.
...
Increasing the strength of the Canadian Forces to at least 75,000 Regular force personnel is a clear priority. We also intend to increase the Reserve force personnel by 10,000.
...Pour être honnête, si nous ne pouvons pas recruter et former du nouveau personnel, nous ne pourrons pas mettre en œuvre nos idées pour l'avenir de nos forces armées...
[Note this ridiculously politically correct goal.]...elles devront se diversifier et devenir plus représentatives de la société canadienne...
Our acquisition process needs to be fair. It needs to be transparent. And most of all, it needs to give the Canadian Forces the equipment they need when they need it...
We will increase our military's deployability.
We will improve our national surveillance capabilities.
We will acquire new equipment and upgrade existing platforms.
We will improve Defence's infrastructure.
And, we will take better care of our men and women in uniform...
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
The new Conservative government has put its mouth behind the revitalization of the Canadian Forces. Bravo...
...Anyone who takes the time to parse the situation knows that what is being offered still doesn't measure up to what is going to be needed.
We're going to come up at least $4 billion a year short -- and probably much more -- even if the Conservatives come through with what they appear to be promising...
The Senate Committee on National Security and Defence argued in its September 2005 report that the defence budget should be $25 to $35 billion by 2011-12 -- compared to the $19 billion that it would have climbed to under the Martin government's plan. The Conservatives have promised an additional $5.3 billion over five years. If an extrapolation (for which there is no firm commitment) were to hold, the Conservatives' 2011-12 military budget would be about $21 billion.
That's $4 billion short of what will be needed to fund the work that Gen. Hillier says is required...
Then there's pork-barrelling. It is worrisome that the Conservatives did what so many political parties have done in election campaigns over the years -- buy seats by promising people that their military bases won't be closed, redundant or not. Well, some of them are redundant. They're sucking money from the military budget that should be spent elsewhere. Providing an economic base for these communities shouldn't be DND's job. That is the role of departments such as industry...
Governments tend to go weak-kneed when it comes to making decisions that might antagonize voters. But somebody has to do what needs to be done.
Recruiting is a huge problem. Gen. Hillier told the committee that the recruiting process is broken. First the Liberals, and now the Conservatives, have promised significant (if inadequate) increases in the regular Forces. Yet last September recruiters were only hitting 76 per cent of the quota needed to simply replace current attrition...
...The average length of time it takes to acquire a piece of major equipment, under the current system, is 14 to 16 years. That may be hard to believe, but it's true...
Fixing the Canadian military is going to take money and more. Prime Minister Harper has said some encouraging things, but is he really going to give Gen. Hillier what he needs to keep Canadians safe?
We'll see.
Senator Colin Kenny was chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence for the past five years. The committee published 14 reports over that period. E-mail: kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca
Update: In his first speech as Minister of National Defence Mr O'Connor provided perishingly little in the way of detail on strengthening the Canadian Forces.
...
Increasing the strength of the Canadian Forces to at least 75,000 Regular force personnel is a clear priority. We also intend to increase the Reserve force personnel by 10,000.
...Pour être honnête, si nous ne pouvons pas recruter et former du nouveau personnel, nous ne pourrons pas mettre en œuvre nos idées pour l'avenir de nos forces armées...
[Note this ridiculously politically correct goal.]...elles devront se diversifier et devenir plus représentatives de la société canadienne...
Our acquisition process needs to be fair. It needs to be transparent. And most of all, it needs to give the Canadian Forces the equipment they need when they need it...
We will increase our military's deployability.
We will improve our national surveillance capabilities.
We will acquire new equipment and upgrade existing platforms.
We will improve Defence's infrastructure.
And, we will take better care of our men and women in uniform...
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Cross-posted to Daimnation!
posted by Mark, Ottawa at 8:29 a.m.
2 Comments:
"If only Liberal Senator Colin Kenny (who knows more about defence than any other Canadian politician) were Minister of National Defence...."
Now that would have been a very interesting 'Senator appointed to Cabinet' story, wouldn't it?
Worth the detour.
Mark
Ottawa
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