Back to news

June 11, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Military spending needed more now than ever, top defence official says

Lee Berthiaume

The Canadian PressStaff

Contact

Published Thursday, June 11, 2020 4:20AM EDT

OTTAWA -- The Defence Department's top civilian official is touting the importance of continued investments in the Canadian Armed Forces, and says she has received no indications the Liberal government is planning to cut spending because of the COVID-19 crisis.

The comments by Defence Department deputy minister Jody Thomas come amid questions about how the Liberal government plans to find the tens of billions of dollars doled out in recent months to support Canadians during the pandemic.

The emergency support, estimated at $153 billion at last count, has far surpassed expected government spending and significant belt-tightening is likely after the crisis as Ottawa will start searching for ways to keep the country from drowning in red ink.

Military spending was previously slashed in the 1990s as Jean Chretien's Liberal government wrestled with massive deficits while Stephen Harper's Conservative government followed a similar course after the 2008-09 financial crash.

That has prompted concerns within defence circles that the pattern will repeat itself after COVID-19, with fears the Liberals will lean heavily on the country's $29-billion defence budget to help get government spending back under control.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Thomas said she had not received any order or direction to slow or cut defence spending and that officials are continuing to work on the planned purchase of new warships, fighter jets and other equipment.

"We are not experiencing any slowdowns," she said.

"We are continuing very aggressively and ambitiously to continue our plan."

That plan is the Liberals' defence strategy, which it released in 2017. Known as Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE), the strategy promised $553 billion in military spending over 20 years. Much of that is to buy new equipment such as jets and warships.

"There has been zero indication from anyone that there would be a cut to the budget," Thomas said, adding Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan "has been very clear of his expectations of us to execute on SSE."

She went on to suggest the planned defence spending is actually needed as much now as before the pandemic as the crisis amplifies the already significant global uncertainty that existed before COVID-19.

A scan of recent headlines underscores that uncertainty, from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration suggesting it may pull troops from Germany to China imposing its will on Hong Kong and flexing its muscles in the South China Sea.

There are also ongoing concerns about Russia and the situation in the Middle East.

"Canada has to be equipped," Thomas said. "In a post-COVID world, there is, I would say as the deputy minister of defence, a need for SSE to in fact be done more quickly rather than slow it down or cut the budget."

The government last week tabled its latest request for money in Parliament, which included $585 million for the continued construction of two new naval support ships in Vancouver. The first of those ships is due in 2023.

Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute said the Liberals have significantly ramped up military spending, but no one knows how fast the economy will recover or how deep Ottawa will be in the hole when the pandemic ends.

"Without knowing more about these things, it's way too early to know what the impact will be to defence," he said.

"But it's a basic fact of Canadian federal budgeting that if a government is looking to reduce all federal spending, DND plays a part in that because it spends the most money."

And while trimming military spending was the route taken by previous governments, there are implications, as evidenced by the age of Canada's CF-18s and other old equipment and its lack of naval support vessels until the new ones are finished.

"Part of the reason we're having issues with procurement today is because of the decisions that were taken before," Perry said.

"The reasons they were taken -- rightly or wrongly, I would say largely rightly -- in the 1990s to reduce spending then, we're still dealing with the after-effects of it now because we didn't buy stuff then and we're trying to make up for lost time now."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2020.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/military-spending-needed-more-now-than-ever-top-defence-official-says-1.4979395

On the same subject

  • Canadian Forces had valuable ‘insights’ in Afghanistan, defence minister says following damning U.S. report

    December 20, 2019 | Local, Other Defence

    Canadian Forces had valuable ‘insights’ in Afghanistan, defence minister says following damning U.S. report

    By Charlie Pinkerton. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says Canadian Forces deployed to Afghanistan contributed useful insights to American forces, whose past military operations in the country have drawn new scrutiny following The Washington Post's publication of the so-called Afghanistan Papers. The documents obtained and published by the Post are the product of hundreds of interviews carried out by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR). SIGAR was mandated to complete a series of reports exploring the effectiveness of its nearly two-decade, close to trillion-dollar mission that it began as a retaliation against al-Qaeda for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The documents fought for in court by the Post include notes, transcripts and audio recordings that the subjects had been promised would not be made public by the government. They provide a thorough look at the frustrations and concerns of top U.S. brass and a lack of understanding of the conflict by the American military and its government. One of the revelations of the Afghanistan Papers is the that as the conflict continued, top American military officials considered it an unwinnable conflict. Sajjan completed three Afghanistan tours, where he worked in intelligence before working directly with top American troops as an adviser. In giving his take on how the Canadian perspective compared to that of the Americans during the mission, Sajjan said the Canadian Armed Forces had a better understanding of the realities of the conflict than its closest allies. READ MORE: A year-end Q&A with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan “I would say the insights the Canadians provided were actually very useful. That's one point that I'm trying to get across here, and I appreciate the Americans coming out and talking about this now,” Sajjan said. “Canadians were providing a very good perspective, very early on, to have a much more, I would say, accurate account of what is happening,” One passage the Post highlighted from the thousands of pages of documents to underscore the discontent with the conflict by U.S. officials was an interview with Douglas Lute, a former top army general who became an adviser on the Afghan war in the White House. “We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn't know what we were doing,” Lute said. “What are we trying to do here? We didn't have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking.” Sajjan said good decisions were made only with an “accurate” and “good understanding” of the Afghanistan conflict. From 2001 to 2014, 40,000 Canadians served in Afghanistan. There were 158 Canadian soldiers killed. On top of its military effort, Canada has provided more than $3 billion in international assistance to Afghanistan since 2001. In talking about Canada's operations in Afghanistan, Sajjan also defended well-known Canadian-led aspects of the mission, such as the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT, but known colloquially as omelette) and its stabilization-focused whole-of-government approach to the conflict. “What I'm trying to say here is that the work that Canada did there was highly valued and I appreciate other allies coming out with different perspectives,” Sajjan said. https://ipolitics.ca/2019/12/19/canadian-forces-had-valuable-insights-in-afghanistan-defence-minister-says-following-damning-u-s-report/

  • Daniel Turp veut empêcher des ventes d’armes «hypocrites»

    January 15, 2019 | Local, Aerospace

    Daniel Turp veut empêcher des ventes d’armes «hypocrites»

    Hugo Joncas | Le Journal de Montréal Ottawa fait preuve d'«hypocrisie» en autorisant la vente d'équipements aéronautiques québécois aux forces de l'Arabie saoudite et des Émirats arabes unis, dit le professeur de droit constitutionnel Daniel Turp, qui veut les faire interdire dès que possible. «Il y a une hypocrisie collective qui fait qu'on tolère ça de nos gouvernements parce que ça créerait des emplois», a dit l'ancien député au micro de Robert Dutrizac sur QUB radio lundi matin. Daniel Turp réagissait au reportage de notre Bureau d'enquête, qui révèle que l'aéronautique québécoise a vendu pour près d'un milliard de dollars en équipements aux militaires saoudiens, émiratis et à leurs alliés dans la sanglante guerre au Yémen, qui a tué 4500 civils jusqu'ici. Il souligne l'«incohérence» de ces ventes avec l'arrivée de la jeune réfugiée saoudienne en sol canadien la fin de semaine dernière. Recours judiciaires Daniel Turp est déjà en quête d'un moyen de pour empêcher de futures exportations. «Je vais mettre mes étudiants au travail», dit le professeur à l'Université de Montréal, en entrevue avec notre Bureau d'enquête. La partie est cependant loin d'être gagnée. Daniel Turp tente déjà d'en appeler jusqu'en Cour suprême pour faire annuler les licences d'exportation des blindés ontariens de General Dynamics. Dans le cas des moteurs de Pratt & Whitney et des appareils de Bell Hélicoptères Textron destinés aux flottes de guerre cependant, aucune licence n'est même nécessaire de la part d'Ottawa, puisqu'ils sont conçus comme des équipements civils. Ils sont ensuite utilisés pour assembler des appareils d'attaque aux États-Unis, lié au Canada par l'Accord sur le partage de la production de défense, un véritable libre-échange de l'armement. «Il faut que je trouve le moyen de poursuivre les compagnies», dit-il. Daniel Turp observera de près comment évolue une poursuite intentée en Italie contre le fabricant d'une bombe saoudienne ayant tué les six membres d'une famille au Yémen, en octobre 2016. Il doit aussi intervenir dans les consultations des prochaines semaines sur le projet de loi C-47, qui doit permettre au Canada d'adhérer au Traité des Nations unies sur le commerce des armes. Daniel Turp compte exiger que les pièces et composantes soient incluses dans la liste du matériel à exportation contrôlée, même lorsqu'elles sont vendues aux États-Unis. Le professeur évoque enfin les «principes directeurs de l'Organisation de développement et de coopération économique» (OCDE), auquel le Canada adhère. Ils mentionnent notamment qu'une entreprise doit «éviter d'être la cause d'incidences négatives sur les droits de l'homme ou d'y contribuer, et parer à ces incidences lorsqu'elles surviennent». https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2019/01/15/daniel-turp-veut-empecher-des-ventes-darmes-hypocrites

  • Babcock Leonardo Canadian Aircrew Training announces IBM as a strategic subcontractor - Skies Mag

    May 30, 2023 | Local, Aerospace

    Babcock Leonardo Canadian Aircrew Training announces IBM as a strategic subcontractor - Skies Mag

    Babcock Leonardo Canadian Aircrew Training announced IBM Canada as a strategic subcontractor for Canada’s Future Aircrew Training (FAcT) program.

All news