Stop the cheering, senators tell generals
Defence panel says Ottawa isn’t doing its part
Canada’s generals shouldn’t be cheerleaders for governments who consistently fail to live up to their defence responsibilities, a new report from the Senate concludes.
The report, released Thursday by the Senate’s defence committee, determined that Canada’s military spending is now 0.88 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, falling far short of NATO’s target of two per cent.
The Liberal government’s new budget will also delay hundreds of millions of dollars of proposed spending.
But Canada’s top soldier, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jon Vance, has defended the government’s decision, stating the military has more than enough money.
There was no point in providing billions of dollars more, Vance said, when the Defence Department and military don’t have the ability to spend it.
The senators appear to take aim at Vance with some of the report’s conclusions.
“When it comes to providing leadership, military commanders should not serve as cheerleaders for the government,” the senators wrote.
“Instead, they should clearly outline their solutions as to where specifically they plan to save money on infrastructure (e.g. by naming the facilities and bases they intend to close) and outline what steps they are taking to ensure the military needs as identified by the Defence Acquisition Guide, the Auditor General of Canada, the ombudsman for the Canadian Armed Forces, industry experts and this Committee are met.”
In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Vance said the military has far too much infrastructure for its size, but didn’t elaborate.
The Senate report recommends boosting the country’s military spending to 1.5 per cent of GDP by 2023 and to two per cent by 2028.
Reaching the two per cent mark would require the government to more than double the current $20-billion defence budget.
“Government after government has talked a good game about the military while providing less and less support,” said Conservative Sen. Daniel Lang, the chair of the committee. “It’s time for the walk to match the talk.”
Both the previous Conservative and current Liberal governments have argued the best way to measure defence spending is by actual dollars spent. By that measure, Canada ranks 17th in the world.