"No Money" Navy

This sort of thing being reported is unlikely to win the Navy friends in high places:

The East Coast navy’s $25-million shortfall has scrapped exercises planned for next week with the NATO squadron now in Halifax.

Three Halifax-based warships, including a tanker, a destroyer and a frigate, had been scheduled to sail with American and German ships now docked in Halifax.

"We had planned to be there as a squadron working with the Canadians," said Cmdr. Chris Dickinson [clearly not a Canadian officer - MC], a spokesman for the Standing NATO Response Force Maritime Group 1.

"They have, as you’ve already been reporting, basically said, ‘Gee whiz, we’re not sailing because we’ve got no money.’ "

Maritime Forces Atlantic made a splash earlier this month when it postponed fisheries patrols out of Halifax until the end of March. The patrols resumed after Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor diverted $5 million from the military’s budget...

The USS Mahan arrived in Halifax on Monday. The destroyer is in Halifax for a change-of-command ceremony slated for Friday. Commodore Denis Rouleau will hand control of the NATO squadron, now under Canadian command, to his American successor, Rear Admiral Michael Mahon.

Starting Monday, the Mahan and the Federal German Ship Sachsen, a stealthy-looking modern vessel that arrived in Halifax on Thursday, will conduct exercises between here and Boston.

They will be accompanied by Sea King helicopters from 12 Wing Shearwater.

"That may sound like something small, but actually the force right now, those two ships, have no helicopters," Cmdr. Dickinson said.

The Sea Kings will practise landings on the two ships and other manoeuvres.

"So we still get something from the Canadians," Cmdr. Dickinson said. "It’s just going to be from the other side of the harbour."..

I wonder to what extent such a funding shortfall is an occasional but normal end of fiscal year occurrence.