Canada doesn’t matter to the rest of the world - and it’s our own fault

[Navy_Pete]

The government has stated they will CUT the budget.
Eluding that the money can not be spent.
Reallocate the money and buy munitions and ammo.
Or heaven forbid buy a few tanks.

I would rather have ammo and munitions then turn money back in.
If the money is not spent then they should automatically reallocate it to spending.

?

Money can't be spent if you don't have it in the budget, and frankly the amount of legwork to land on that 95% of budgeted NP and O&M funds is staggering, given the amount of bureaucratic road blocks in place that seem to be specifically designed to actually prevent you from doing things that result in any real output. If contingency money isn't needed that's a good thing generally, but typically we will plan to 105-110% of the actual budget on the equipment support side to allow some things to slip, because that's how real life goes.

Capitol project money is only notionally planned on an annual basis, but in reality is a pot of money that you have for that project, regardless of when it's actually paid out. So for something like JSS or the F35s the money isn't unspent, it's just not paid out until the milestone is met and doesn't go away. So again, house analogy, if you have $100k sitting there for your build, and something gets delayed, you aren't goign to spend it on a car and expect to still have $100k for a house. You have some pretty obvious reasons for not wanting the build delayed, but if it goes on too long your $100k doesn't buy as much as it would have 5 or 10 years ago.

 

[Maxman1]

There are probably only enough military structures techs to build a dozen houses per year (and I am being generous), if they did absolutely nothing else.

Still, it might be a cool DP1 project for them to completely build a house per year..

That feels like it would end up like this:

 

[lenaitch]

Just finished demo on about 1000 units in Borden. Understand these were WW2 vintage, BUT wouldn't one consider a phased program- doze 10 rebuild maybe 5 ?

I used to go onto and through Borden a fair bit. Are you including shack capacity? The CFHA shows 675 RHUs. Did you tear them all down?

 

[childs56]

?

Money can't be spent if you don't have it in the budget, and frankly the amount of legwork to land on that 95% of budgeted NP and O&M funds is staggering, given the amount of bureaucratic road blocks in place that seem to be specifically designed to actually prevent you from doing things that result in any real output. If contingency money isn't needed that's a good thing generally, but typically we will plan to 105-110% of the actual budget on the equipment support side to allow some things to slip, because that's how real life goes.

Capitol project money is only notionally planned on an annual basis, but in reality is a pot of money that you have for that project, regardless of when it's actually paid out. So for something like JSS or the F35s the money isn't unspent, it's just not paid out until the milestone is met and doesn't go away. So again, house analogy, if you have $100k sitting there for your build, and something gets delayed, you aren't goign to spend it on a car and expect to still have $100k for a house. You have some pretty obvious reasons for not wanting the build delayed, but if it goes on too long your $100k doesn't buy as much as it would have 5 or 10 years ago.

Again if they are cutting almost a billion dollars from the budget.
Some have stated we can't spend the budget currently.
We need ammunition and munitions. So divert the money to those.
I know it isn't just that easy.. but it isn't that hard either. DND is given so much money. They are going to loose a significant amount. Possibly even more. So buy bullets..We need those.

Remember the 90s when budgets were cut and things were real bad. Most didn't have the fuel required to conduct much of anything let alone bullets and munitions. Then magically in the early 2000s we had magically acquired lots of all.

 

[dimsum]

Again if they are cutting almost a billion dollars from the budget.
Some have stated we can't spend the budget currently.
We need ammunition and munitions. So divert the money to those.
I know it isn't just that easy.. but it isn't that hard either. DND is given so much money. They are going to loose a significant amount. Possibly even more. So buy bullets..We need those.

Remember the 90s when budgets were cut and things were real bad. Most didn't have the fuel required to conduct much of anything let alone bullets and munitions. Then magically in the early 2000s we had magically acquired lots of all.

It wasn’t “magic”, it was the coverage of Canadian ramp ceremonies in Kandahar.

 

[Quirky]

Defence insiders sound alarms on state of Canadian military

Citing everything from troop shortages to dwindling ammunition stocks to aging equipment and technology, a growing number of defence insiders are raising alarms about the state of the Canadian military.

www.ctvnews.ca

I'm glad we have experts for this, otherwise no one would believe it.

 

[ueo]

I used to go onto and through Borden a fair bit. Are you including shack capacity? The CFHA shows 675 RHUs. Did you tear them all down?

No, just singles, semis and apts.

 

[ueo]

Doesn't even have to be built on-site. Build pre-fab units indoors and transport them to location. Just need the land.

Don't we have CAF trades people who can build such housing units? If not, get the bids out to local businesses.

Few tradesmen remain. Lotsa land in Boredom! Prefabs work well, remembering that most PMQs were built 40's to 50's and expected to last about 20 oe so years. (or so I was told by an old BCEO.)

 

[ueo]

Any salvage of the wood? Or was all sent to the landfills?

Majority dumped into various ravines etc in trg area as asbestos was present.

 

[lenaitch]

No, just singles, semis and apts.

So, everything by the looks of it:

Military housing in Borden - Canada.ca

View information about military housing in Borden, including types of housing, rent, square footage, etc.

www.canada.ca

Adds up to 675.

 

[mariomike]

Soldiering has always been a controversial profession - not often a preferred trade.

Never was a Recruiter.

But, I believe the CAF makes a vital contribution to Canada.

Maybe that is important to some students. Maybe it's not. That's for them to decide.

But, if they join after high school, and hang in for the whole ride, there's a 70% pension around age 53.

That is worth considering.

 

[YZT580]

Never was a Recruiter.

But, I believe the CAF makes a vital contribution to Canada.

Maybe that is important to some students. Maybe it's not. That's for them to decide.

But, if they join after high school, and hang in for the whole ride, there's a 70% pension around age 53.

That is worth considering.

indexed

 

[mariomike]

indexed

Right. Indexed.

 

[CBH99]

Majority dumped into various ravines etc in trg area as asbestos was present.

Something tells me this is going to become an issue sometime over the next few decades as asbestos probably should have been sent to & disposed of in a specialized facility of some sort, rather than just dumped into various ravines on training areas

Eventually those training areas will close or move (or maybe not) - but eventually having a bunch of asbestos dumped into some ravines will need to be dealt with if for none other than environmental reasons...



(Full disclosure - I know absolutely nothing about asbestos other than if discovered during a renovation the need to evac everybody & call a specialist ASAP, and in Newfoundland there is a giant open pit asbestos mine & cancer rates are ABSURDLY high...)

 

[Castus]

Paywalls unfortunately

https://archive.is/zYUA2

The archive.today site is great. Works for almost all paywalls.

 

[ueo]

Something tells me this is going to become an issue sometime over the next few decades as asbestos probably should have been sent to & disposed of in a specialized facility of some sort, rather than just dumped into various ravines on training areas

Eventually those training areas will close or move (or maybe not) - but eventually having a bunch of asbestos dumped into some ravines will need to be dealt with if for none other than environmental reasons...



(Full disclosure - I know absolutely nothing about asbestos other than if discovered during a renovation the need to evac everybody & call a specialist ASAP, and in Newfoundland there is a giant open pit asbestos mine & cancer rates are ABSURDLY high...)

Asbestos you have some knowledge of. DND following the very loose environmental rules of the day, I think not, I have several other examples but choose to not lay them out here, (Pleads the 5th!)

 

[monkmind]

I think 4 months is a reasonable limit for a complicated hire. If an organization can't hire in 4 months or less, it really does not have it's shit together. It's a mess and needs complete overhaul.

I am a PR, applied January 2023. All tests done, pre-sec clearance for Lv II began in January 2024. That's one year from when I applied. Was told I should wait 18-24 months for the results. While I can understand that the standards of background checks must be met, I wonder why the CAF decided to allow permanent residents to join if they don't have the network or infrastructure to quickly screen people and get them in. I wonder if anyone had actually had to wait 18-24 months to get in. No matter how enthusiastic you are, it dies down with that long wait. Shocked even for born Canadian citizens it sometimes take a year as well. Have a cousin who moved to the US as PR, has lived in several countries before. Within the first 6 months of his stay in the US, he was already sworn in. Even the Defence minister mentioned this long wait makes no sense...

 

[CBH99]

I am a PR, applied January 2023. All tests done, pre-sec clearance for Lv II began in January 2024. That's one year from when I applied. Was told I should wait 18-24 months for the results. While I can understand that the standards of background checks must be met, I wonder why the CAF decided to allow permanent residents to join if they don't have the network or infrastructure to quickly screen people and get them in. I wonder if anyone had actually had to wait 18-24 months to get in. No matter how enthusiastic you are, it dies down with that long wait. Shocked even for born Canadian citizens it sometimes take a year as well. Have a cousin who moved to the US as PR, has lived in several countries before. Within the first 6 months of his stay in the US, he was already sworn in. Even the Defence minister mentioned this long wait makes no sense...

Let me start this off by saying a sincere Thank You just for applying. As a PR, you've already had to do a lot to get to where you are - and the fact that you are applying to serve the nation should be acknowledged and appreciated, in my opinion

And I agree, once they made the decision to allow PR's to apply, they should have made sure their ability to process security clearances were adequate.

I think they probably didn't think to expand this capacity in the belief that the capacity that existed was enough to process anybody who applied given the shortage of applicants at the time. (I know I didn't word that particularly well, hopefully that made sense)


You'll hear a phrase used quite commonly in any military you serve in..."Hurry up and wait." This is precisely that.

Doesn't always make sense, usually there is no rhythm or reason that's easily discernable. It's something I think every military in the west shares in common (to varying degrees)

 

[CBH99]

Asbestos you have some knowledge of. DND following the very loose environmental rules of the day, I think not, I have several other examples but choose to not lay them out here, (Pleads the 5th!)

Oh I can only imagine

CIBC sees Ottawa's bond issuance rising 22%

Ottawa will end up tapping the bond market for around $250 billion in debt next year, CIBC says. Find out more.

financialpost.com

Again, I'm going to ask this question rhetorically... (But if anybody has the answer, feel free to help me out)

On April 1st, the carbon tax goes up. Again. And until just last week, they were going to increase the beer & liquor tax also - so not only is going out on a dinner date more expensive, but that glass of wine you order will be sure to compliment your now more expensive meal.

Not to mention the gas you put in your car to get to dinner was more expensive - as were the utilities you used while getting ready for your dinner date.

You still pay taxes on every paycheck, slightly more now than you did a few years ago.



And yet somehow...somehow ...we're running how big of a deficit in the upcoming budget? Oh only a few dozen billions of dollars? Whew, good...

for a minute there I thought maybe Freeland's constant reassurances that things are going sooooooooo good were a bit overly optimistic

 

[KevinB]

Oh I can only imagine

CIBC sees Ottawa's bond issuance rising 22%

Ottawa will end up tapping the bond market for around $250 billion in debt next year, CIBC says. Find out more.

financialpost.com

Again, I'm going to ask this question rhetorically... (But if anybody has the answer, feel free to help me out)

On April 1st, the carbon tax goes up. Again. And until just last week, they were going to increase the beer & liquor tax also - so not only is going out on a dinner date more expensive, but that glass of wine you order will be sure to compliment your now more expensive meal.

Not to mention the gas you put in your car to get to dinner was more expensive - as were the utilities you used while getting ready for your dinner date.

You still pay taxes on every paycheck, slightly more now than you did a few years ago.



And yet somehow...somehow ...we're running how big of a deficit in the upcoming budget? Oh only a few dozen billions of dollars? Whew, good...

for a minute there I thought maybe Freeland's constant reassurances that things are going sooooooooo good were a bit overly optimistic

If Canada was a business, it would be in receivership…