Harper set to announce $15 billion in military spending

[tuvor]

Ottawa will announce $15 billion in new spending on the Canadian military next week, CBC News has learned.

A report by SRC, the CBC's French language service, says the spending spree will be "Christmas in June for the Canadian Forces."

On Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set to announce in Halifax that the Conservative government will fund the building of three new supply ships. That is expected to cost about $2.1 billion.

On Tuesday, the announcement will be to give the army new trucks. That promise, worth about $1.1 billion, will be made in Quebec.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/06/21/military21062006.html

[Canuck55]

1. Love how they don't even pretend it isn't for photo op's.

Why have one big presser to announce it when you can go for 4 straight! Talk about taking any suspense out of the equation now that everyone knows a week in advance, the least they could have done was said "You can't miss next week!! Four HUGE announcements from the Gov't coming!!" FOXCanada where are you???

Actually i'm for this, as long as it's like one-time for now. Much of our equipment does need a shot in the arm, but not nearly as badly as the CW is. DART is one of the top disaster response options on the planet, having to hitchhike where needed was getting old. Too bad that most of the entire 15 billion will head south to defense contractors. Some of the buildings on our bases are barely inhabitable, You couldn't have taken 1 billion and dedicated it to base upgrades and renovations for our troops Steve-O? Corporate Whore to the Core.

[Bragi]

2. Nothing to cheer about here

I have no doubt that, with good spin and a compliant media, Canadians (even the NDP, of course) will be fine with Harper pumping billions of tax dollars that otherwise might be *wasted* on social programs into making the Canadian military more fit and able to support the US in its current and future imperial adventures abroad.

For my part, I see absolutely nothing here to cheer about. Personally, I'd rather have better health care and improved education than pay for stand-by rapid airlift that will allow us to quickly drop well-armed Canadian troops into US-targeted killing zones across the globe.

- B

[daleo]

3. A minority government and $15 billion in no-bid contracts

These guys make the Mulroney government seem above board.

[MrPrax]

4. 15 billion....?

Where have I heard that before:

Canadian Forces in the 21st century

"...Defence Minister Bill Graham said the new command will also improve co-ordination between the military and Canada's security and border control agencies, while reinforcing the country's commitments under the North American Aerospace Defence Command.

He said the announcement was the first step in a larger plan to revamp Canada's military, a force that has been criticized by the U.S. and other NATO allies as underfunded.

In the 2005 budget, the Liberal government promised a nearly $13-billion boost in military spending for the next five years. The Conservatives have promised even greater military spending if they should form a government, and even the dovish NDP has backed increased spending on the Forces."

CBC backgrounder 2005

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Canada's military-corporate complex and its services rendered to George W.Bush

"...

* Dollar for dollar, the military's $15-billion spending is the seventh highest among the 26-member NATO alliance, and 15th highest in the world.

* The 2005 federal budget added $12.8 billion over five years to the military, and the Conservatries will top that by $5.3 billion, putting spending much higher than at any time during the Cold War.

* In the last election, all of the national political parties supported these massive increases to military spending, including the NDP.

* The media's support for joining the U.S. missile defence program was near total, despite widespread public skepticism and opposition.

* Once a top 10 contributor of soldiers to UN peacekeeping, today we can fit all our Blue Helmets onto a single school bus - less than 60, out of more than 60,000 UN peacekeepers worldwide.

* Our 2,300-troop-strong effort in Afghanistan, a counterterrorism mission currently under U.S. command, is a proving ground for the adoption of U.S. war-fighting doctrine and a symbolic end to Canadian/UN peacekeeping.


When sufficiently aroused or organized, Canadian public opinion can prevent the government from adopting the military-corporate complex's agenda. Its lobby can always be rebuffed when Canadians become informed and act upon their values.

Znet - April 2006

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How much is enough?

But the defence lobby has a ready answer: "Whatever it is — it's never enough!"

And Paul Martin has been obliging — Canada's military spending is climbing higher and higher every year. That's why the Polaris Institute conducted research on our growing military spending. You can read our report on the ceasefire.ca website (link below).

Did you know that Canada is the 7th highest military spender among NATO's 26 members? And the Liberals' 2005 budget will increase military spending by $12.8 billion over the next five years?

That means that by the end of the decade our budget will have grown from $14.6 billion today to almost $20 billion each year — higher than at any point since the Second World War.

Straight Jan 2006
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Canadians want social programs put ahead of military spending, despite defence lobby and spin.

n recent months, the defence lobby has fielded an army of retired generals, academics, and CEOs to convince the Chrétien government to push $1-billion to $2-billion a year into the Department of National Defence's (DND)coffers.

But the debate is so clouded by spin that it is even difficult to agree on Canada's current level of spending. For example, defence lobbyists claim that Canada's military spending is as low as Luxembourg's. Of course this isn't the case; but by using a misleading model comparing military spending as a percentage of GDP rather than real dollars, the defence lobby confuses the debate right from the start.

In fact, according to DND, Canada's estimated military spending for 2002-2003 will be more than $12.3-billion. In actual dollars, this makes Canada the sixth highest military spender amongst NATO's 19 members, and the 16th largest in the world. With cost-overruns and a war against Iraq, the final bill for the military could cost more than $13-billion.

Polaris - 2002
PDF document of Breaking Rank: Citizens' Review of Canada's Military Spending

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Nothing new to anyone following the tripling of military spending since the Cold War...

[Canuck55]

5. How exactly is this imperialistic?

97% of the time our military is involved in humanitarian efforts, abroad and domestic. Whether you agree with the Afghanistan/UNOCAL invasion is beside the fact, our troops deserve decent living conditions, which many don't have. I support providing helicopters for our troops that don't crash into the ocean due to mechanical failures, planes that can get them and their equipment to where needed, if that means we can't build a multi-cultural centre somewhere for another 3 years then so be it. As i said above, Steve-O can screw off for not offering some base renovations that have been in the same shape as when they were built in the 50's.

edit: was a reply to the original, not Mr. Prax's post ~