Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Underway]

Third - DM and DND ADM Pol (currently Peter Hammerschmidt) will be required to come up with a new White Paper that puts the emphasis on -

• Defending Canada, proper,
• Defending North America in partnership with the USA,
• Assisting in the defence of democratic allies in Asia and Europe in cooperation with Asia-Pacific allies and as a member of NATO, and
• Supporting veterans in a fair but cost effective manner.

So basically the exact same white paper/defence policy we have had since forever:

Harpers policy
Canada First Defense Strategy - Defend Canada, Defend North America, Defend our allies

Trudeau's policy
Strong Secure Engaged - Strong in Canada, Secure in North America, Engaged with NATO and allies

Canada's strategic needs don't change. The only thing that changes is the shopping list.

A new white paper is basically a waste of time and a way to dither on important decisions/expendatures. They have multi-party support on the same friggin defence policy, they just refuse to acknowledge that.

Also a white paper on defence that mentions veterans I would call an omnibus paper. Veterans are not the CAF nor a defence problem. They are a social program problem run by Veterans Affairs.

 

[Navy_Pete]

@Edward Campbell I suspect you are right, and there will also be further real cuts to the in service side, along with some kind of DRAP 2.0 to whittle down the public service side (which fundamentally undercuts CAF ability to support itself when the various SMEs retire)

The LOE required to push projects now is insane, and even what should be straight forward buys of replacement widgets has a number of extra reviews. All that needs people and expertise, which we already don't have enough of. It's increased significantly during my career, and only getting worse.

It's really frustrating as both a CAF member trying to put parts on shelves and support units, as well as a Canadian taxpayer for how much time/work it takes to do anything and the cost of that, where a huge amount of 'oversight' and 'approval' seems to serve no useful purpose other than to add delays to spending approval.