A rchive Date
[ 04-03-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/scarth.html
Billions wasted in Canadian military
By TODD SCARTH - Winnipeg Sun
January 3, 2003
It's probably safe to assume that when we look back on 2003 a year from now, the military will be part of the story.
You can't even watch a hockey game these days without seeing Don Cherry banging the drum for war. While we can't know what will happen in global hotspots like Iraq or North Korea or Luxembourg, we can be sure that our troops will be out there doing us proud and ...
Wait a minute, Luxembourg?
You mean the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a tiny country that has a smaller population than Winnipeg? What does it have to do with Canada's army? Well, nothing, really, but you wouldn't know it if you got stuck standing between a defence lobbyist and a Canadian Alliance supporter at some Christmas party recently.
They would have told you that Canada's spending on the military is as low as Luxembourg's as an argument to push for more! more! more! cash for defence. Even the House of Commons defence committee's recent report found comparing Canada's military spending with Luxembourg's too tempting to pass up.
Steve Staples, a researcher with the Polaris Institute, has taken a closer look at how much Canada spends on the military, how we really compare with other countries - including Luxembourg - and how that money is spent. What he found may surprise you. Start with the Luxembourg argument.
Canada will spend an estimated $12.3 billion this year on the military. That's more than that of most of the other NATO members, including Spain, the Netherlands and Turkey - and three times as much as that of Denmark and Belgium. Not to mention about 20 times as much as little old Luxembourg. So what is the trick that the defence lobby uses to make Canada's military spending seem so low?
In a bit of statistical sleight-of-hand, those who want to crank up spending on the military talk about how much we spend as a proportion of GDP. This seems like a reasonable approach as long as you don't think about it.
However, when you measure military spending in that way, the results are truly goofy. For example, you'd also find that Turkey and Greece spend more on defence than the United States! Without going into too much detail about this stuff, suffice it to say that Canada spends quite a bit on its army - enough to rank sixth out of NATO countries and 16th in the world.
Staples review of Canada's Department of National Defence reveals that the department's problems are not insufficient funding at all. The issue is not how much money the military gets, but how it spends.
For more than a decade, Canada has tried to play a more combat-oriented role around the globe. As Staples shows, these missions under NATO and U.S. command have come at the expense of traditional UN peacekeeping. In fact, at the end of 2001 only 219 soldiers - fewer than 6% of deployed Canadian personnel - were participating in UN peacekeeping missions.
Billions have been wasted on big-ticket military programs like used British submarines, a $174-million satellite communication system that was never used, and $65 million for pilot training that was never taken. Meanwhile, the people who were literally on the front lines - privates - saw their wages frozen for eight years.
In other words, the Canadian military has enough cash to buy expensive equipment, but not enough to pay its people properly. (Nurses across the county must be nodding in recognition at that.)
It is also moving away from the role that most Canadians see as a typical and appropriate one for us internationally - as peacekeepers. Still, defence-industry lobbyists continue to call for immediate increases in the spending that fuels this misguided approach. Money that could be used on other priorities, such as health care.
I say, if they don't like it they should move to Luxembourg!
Todd Scarth is a Sun columnist and director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Manitoba. He can be reached by e-mail at todd@policyalternatives.ca. Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@wpgsun.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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