Report suggests 1.5 per cent annual increase already outstripped by inflation

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

OTTAWA - A new report says the Conservative government's stable-funding program for the Canadian military is in shambles, only months after it was released.

The Senate security and defence committee released a study yesterday that suggests the Harper government's numbers don't add up.

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, the head of the committee, says the planned annual increase of 1.5 per cent to the defence budget is already being outstripped by inflation.

"The Bank of Canada has come out just in the past week and announced that inflation is going to be at four per cent, which puts the Canadian military in the hole by 2.5 per cent," Kenny said in an interview.

Given that the army will be fighting a ground war in southern Afghanistan until 2011, Kenny says it would be inexcusable to let the current plan, unveiled in February, to stand. "That's what outrages me," he said. "We have men and women in harm's way and the government is trying to do this on the cheap.

"If that's how they feel they shouldn't put our kids in harm's way. They should simply stay at home."

The Conservatives' much-hyped Canada First Defence Strategy commits the federal government to stop paying for overseas deployments, such as the Afghan mission, out of the Defence Department's annual operating budget, as had been the practice. As part of the strategy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised the military annual budget increases of 1.5 per cent between now and 2011 and two per cent a year after that.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay dismissed the Senate criticism, saying the Tory government has outlined plans that will pour as much as $50 billion into the military.

"We've put forward an unprecedented commitment both financial and moral for the Canadian Forces," he said. "Liberal Senator Colin Kenny's report is both disingenuous and inflammatory.