In our day-to-day lives we don’t often think about the responsibilities of various levels of government. Mostly “the government” is something that’s "out there", sometimes irritating, always expensive, and occasionally functional. The nearest level to us, municipalities, are responsible for things like water, roads, sewers and trash collection – things we quickly notice when they go wrong. It’s relatively easy to hold municipal governments to account on such dull but essential functions – if they’re not working properly it affects our lives in tangible ways.
For the most part it takes longer to notice failings at the federal level. Things like passport delivery have made the news in the recent past, and that certainly has an impact on those Canadians hoping to travel. And of course the hundreds of thousands of civil servants facing payroll glitches over the past decade noticed; the public response was muted since the problem was centred in Ottawa.
Who is responsible for what? It is useful to go back to the basics. The Constitution Acts (or, for those of us of a certain age, the British North America Act) sets out the areas in which the federal and provincial governments can act. Section 91 of the act lists 30 responsibilities for the federal parliament. Today I’d like to focus on #7, “Militia, Military and Naval Service, and Defence.”
The purpose of the military is to defend Canada's security, interests and values and to contribute to international peace and security. To do so, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) need personnel and equipment.
Personnel: The target strength of the CAF is 115,000 personnel between the regular force and the reserves. At present there is a shortfall of 16,500, or more than 10%. The navy is so short of people that they cannot crew all their (few) ships. The air force is critically short of pilots. The army is tightly stretched – the plan is to increase the present force of 1,000 soldiers in Latvia to 2,200. For every soldier in the field it takes perhaps five people to support them. Support has been so lacking that the first soldiers deployed to Poland to train Ukrainian soldiers had to find their own food locally and submit receipts – which often weren’t paid.
Recruiting for the CAF has failed to reach targets for years. Hardly a wonder when looking at the scarce and dilapidated equipment recruits would be expected to work with. And the very low priority the Federal government seems to accord the military generally. One federal response? To allow recruits to dye their hair as they see fit, have facial tattoos, piercings, and wear the gender of uniform they wish. For every potential recruit that appeals to, one must wonder how many “traditional” soldiers are put off.
Equipment: The air force received its first CF-18 in 1982. The service life of the aircraft was then estimated at 20 years. The planes have since been refurbished many times; still in 2016 it was estimated that 85% of the airframe’s useful life had been used up. With a top speed of Mach 1.8 the stresses on the airframe are tremendous; pilots are now limited in how they fly the aircraft to minimize those stresses. With only 71 elderly CF-18s still in service, Canada has had to take a pass on recent Allied operations.
The navy received the first of the Halifax-class frigates, the mainstay of the fleet, in 1992. Plans for their replacement began in 2010, with the National Shipbuilding Strategy. This plan awarded contracts to three Canadian shipyards for both combat ships and non-combatants like ice breakers. Initially costed at $30 billion for 21 warships, the bill is now thought to be on the order of $80 billion. The project is several years behind schedule. Of these warships, 15 were to be frigates. It is impossible to say when these ships will be in service, or how much they will eventually cost, or whether the number will be reduced because of rising costs.
The army has said it will cost over $200 million just to replace arms and ammunition donated to Ukraine. That is on top of a long list of longstanding unfulfilled needs – armoured vehicles, ground air defense, etc. And since Canada has been scrambling to buy needed equipment like just about every other Allied country since the invasion of Ukraine, lags are longer and costs are higher. Since many of these purchases were authorized and (ostensibly) funded in 2017, it is a mystery why the cupboard is so bare.
On top of all this, the feds recently announced a $1 billion cut to the CAF budget.
This is simply the briefest overview of the federal government’s managing of Canada’s defense. They are no where near a passing grade.