Government to spend extra $360M on war against ISIL in next year

For costs above normal operating expenses, not including salaries

War isn’t cheap.

The Conservative government expects to spend more than $360 million on Canada’s fight against the Islamic State over the next 12 months. That is on top of the $122 million already spent on the war, bringing the total to nearly half a billion dollars.

The revelation is contained in the federal budget, making the war against ISIL Canada’s most expensive military mission since Afghanistan.

The spending applies only to costs above and beyond normal operating expenses and does not include salaries or other fixed costs.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver touted the mission while presenting the budget to the House of Commons on Tuesday.

“The jihadist terrorists who proclaimed a so-called caliphate in the Middle East have declared war on Canada and Canadians by name,” he said. “In response, we have taken up the fight both overseas and here at home.”

Canada has nearly 70 special forces troops training and working alongside Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.

Six fighter jets, two surveillance aircraft and an air-to-air refuelling plane are also bombing ISIL targets and providing logistical and intelligence support over Iraq and Syria.

In October, the government approved a six-month mission that restricted the operations of Canadian warplanes and special forces troops to Iraq. It later expanded the bombing campaign into Syria and extended the mission until the end of March 2016.

Both the NDP and the Liberals have opposed the military mission. They have argued, among other things, that Canada could have made a bigger impact by increasing emergency assistance to the 3.3 million Iraqis who have been forced from their homes by ISIL.

The United Nations has appealed to the international community for $2.23 billion to help Iraqis affected by ISIL. Canada had committed $61 million by the end of March, which made it sixth among international donors in dollar amounts, but the UN is still short more than $1.3 billion.

The budget also revealed it will cost $7.1 million this year to have 200 Canadian Forces members help train Ukraine’s military, which is struggling to contain separatist rebels in the east of the country.

The government announced the deployment last week.

Canada has also deployed fighter jets and a naval frigate to the region in response to the crisis, which the government blames on Russia, but it has not said how much those efforts are costing.