Toronto Star - May 16, 2008
By Colin Kenny
John Wayne was the epitome of the Hollywood tough guy – steely eyed, quick fisted, a man of action rather than words. He played the toughest cowboy and the more courageous war hero in movie after movie.
The thing most people don’t remember is that Wayne was careful not to interrupt his film career with anything as messy as military duty. Unlike Clark Gable, Henry Fonda and other stars, the toughest-talking patriot in American never enlisted for World War II.
Wayne didn’t like to talk about that. On the other hand, Stephen Harper and his defence ministers have very much enjoyed talking about how muscular they have made the Canadian Forces, compared to those 98-pound Liberal weaklings under Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.
I have no problem with the current government depicting those Liberal governments as pikers when it came to funding the kind of military Canadians need. They were pikers.
I do have a problem with Stephen Harper playing the swaggering movie version of John Wayne. He portrays a government that has turned the 98-pound weakling into a helpful, big-shouldered bruiser, capable of defending Canadians’ physical safety at home and advancing our interests abroad.
This is a façade. At first I giddily bought into the Conservative hype about resuscitating the Canadian military. I was suckered.
Consider:
NATO’s target for member countries’ defence spending is 2 percent of GDP. Even Pierre Elliott Trudeau spent 2 percent. Canada’s current defence spending totals just 1.2 percent of GDP, and will drop to .87 percent under the current 20 year government strategy.
Canada, the Netherlands and Australia have similar world interests. Canada spends $558 per capita on defence; the Netherlands $669; Australia $808.
In mid-April the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence received the Canadian army’s 2008/2009 strategic needs report. In it, LGen. Andrew Leslie revealed that the army’s size has actually declined by 30 soldiers since 2005. “The army is now stretched almost to the breaking point.”
The navy’s report was just as gloomy. It said the strength of the navy’s fleet will be soon halved and that Canada will not be able to play a meaningful role with our allies on the high seas for five years between 2013 and 2018.
The air force report warned that without significant new funding up to 15 Canadian Forces-18s will have to be grounded, plus four Hercules transports, four Aurora patrol aircraft and six Sea King helicopters.
The government announced in 2006 that it would increase the Regular Forces by 13,000 to 75,000 by 2010-11, and that the Reserves would be increased by 10,000 to 35,000. Then in 2007 it quietly delayed its plan for a full year and ‘reprofiled’ it, halving the increase in Regulars to 6,500 and chopping the increase in Reserves from 10,000 to 1,000. The Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, based on the operational tempo of the Canadian Forces over the past ten years, estimates that 90,000 regulars are needed at a minimum.
Under its “Canada First” policy, the government promised that the Canadian Forces would increase its focus on defending Canadian territory, and that the Forces would be quick to respond to domestic man-made or natural disasters. Territorial Battalions would be created at 12 centers across the country. That hasn’t happened.
When General Rick Hillier became Chief of the Defence Staff in 2005 he made it his mission to transform and grow the Canadian Forces at home at the same time Canadian troops were serving in Kandahar. After two decades of shabby treatment and overuse the Forces were short on personnel, equipment, training capacity and so hollowed out that in 2006 an embarrassing 18-month pause in overseas operations had to be ordered up. Underfunded, the general’s reorganization plan is foundering. A senior military source recently told me that the Forces are now in worse shape than they were back when the pause was implemented.
Despite all of the above, Prime Minister Harper keeps on flexing for the electorate. From the 2008 Throne Speech:
“Our government will modernize Canada’s military to provide effective surveillance and protection for all of our country, cooperate in the defence of North America, and meet our responsibilities abroad to the United Nations and our allies . . . Our government believes that focus and action, rather than rhetoric and posturing, are restoring our influence in global affairs . . .” Mr. Harper speaking to the Conference of Defence Associations in February: “Countries that cannot or will not make real contributions to global security are not regarded as serious players.”
Well, bad news. Canada is skimping, and the chickens will soon come home to roost. Our committee’s most frugal estimate is that Canada will require a defence budget of $35 billion by 2011 to give our armed forces personnel a reasonable chance of performing the roles assigned to them. It looks like the government intends to fall short by about $14 billion.
The Prime Minister and his Minister of Defence gave some sleight-of-hand speeches earlier this week suggesting that they have some master plan, involving many billions of dollars over 20 years, to ensure that the Canadian military is well-funded. Their words and numbers add up to a sham. Mr. Flaherty’s most recent budget only boosts military spending by 2% annually and that is unlikely to even match inflation. The numbers announced by the Prime Minister may look impressive, but defence spending will actually go down as a percentage of GDP which is the only valid statistic to compare military spending from year to year. The Government’s announcement and subsequent “clarification” are intended for electoral purposes and not to enhance the Department of Defences long term capabilities.
The government’s commitment is to a budget of $30 Billion by 2031. The committee has costed out the funding necessary to maintain (not expand) existing capabilities; the figures work out to between $25-$35 Billion by 2011-2012 (not 2031). Senior Military sources have told us that their real needs actually exceed the high end of our estimate.
Canadians are going to pay a price in terms of loss of security and influence, and our troops are already paying a price. In Afghanistan we don’t have our own helicopters for them, which would make them less vulnerable to roadside bombs. They have had to make do with antiquated drones to provide intelligence about who is planting those bombs over the hill and around the corner.
Mr. Harper is right – focus and action, rather than rhetoric and posturing, are what is needed when it comes to Canada’s military. John Wayne couldn’t have said it any better.
Colin Kenny is Chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. He can be reached via email at kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca