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Tory Budget Won't Do Much More for Military Than Liberal Budget: Analysts

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 May 2006, 18:00 CDT

By JOHN WARD

OTTAWA (CP) - The Conservative defence budget looks a lot like the Liberal defence budget, analysts say - long on promises and short on delivery.

The new budget pledges $5.3 billion more for the military over five years, but adds only $400 million more this year and $725 million more next year.

"I was quite disappointed with the budget," said Elinor Sloan, a Carleton University political science professor who follows defence issues.

"I thought that there would be more specifics. I also thought that there would be more money made available."

"The budget they announced sounds not unlike the budget the Liberals announced a year ago.

"If you take the five-year forecast, it's a big amount of money, but if you break it down to what the forces will see in the next couple of years, it's not very much."

The Conservatives used Liberal defence policies as a punching bag during the election campaign, promising new transport planes, more troops and new equipment of all kinds.

But when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty read his budget this week, there were no details of new defence spending beyond the bare bones of the platform.

"The question is what are the priorities?" said David Rudd of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.

"They're coming through with the cash, but what are they going to spend it on?"

No worries, says Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, everything is on track.

"Ever since the campaign, we've had an internal plan for defence and finances and we're right on track, just look at the numbers," he said. "They're climbing at the right rate."

O'Connor said he's shepherding six or eight projects through cabinet.

"As soon I get cabinet approval you're going to start seeing them moving."

The Forces are in desperate need of some new equipment. The C-130 transport planes, some of which date to the 1960s, are worn out. Two of the 32-plane fleet have been permanently grounded and others are aging fast.

The air force has no medium-lift helicopters, meaning Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have to hitch rides with the Americans. It also lacks any long-range heavy air transport planes.

O'Connor said air transport is No. 1.

"Airlift has got to be the first priority out of the gate," he said. "I don't want to get into details. I don't know about airplane types or numbers. That's up to the military."

Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of the defence staff, says C-130 replacements are his top priority and it's said O'Connor favours heavy lift first. But the minister said he and Hillier are in agreement.

There are other shortfalls. The navy needs new supply ships.

"The army even needs trucks, for God's sake," said Rudd.

The defence capabilities plan, a formal shopping list which was expected out last year, may not be released until June.

"We need to see this defence capabilities plan at some point," Rudd added. "What is going to be at the top of the agenda?"

Even if the minister announces new programs, buying military gear is a long process.

Allen Sens, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, notes that military procurement programs are delicate balancing acts, especially when you have to act fast.

"To procure quickly, a number of things have to be in place," Sens said.

"You've got to have the political side in order, you've got to have a clear consensus on the military side that this is the equipment you need and you've got to have an ability to access that equipment quickly."

Those could all be problems for the Tories. They have a minority government, the military has yet to issue its defence capabilities plan laying out what it wants, and major items such as planes and ships can't be bought off the lot.

"For big ticket items like heavy lift aircraft, ships, fighter jets, helicopters, it's a torturous process," Sens said.

"You can have political problems, you can have debates within the military and then you can have the slow, arduous process of weapons platform development and production at the private sector level.

"If all those things create problems, then you're going to have a long, slow process."

Senator Colin Kenny, the Liberal chairman of the Senate defence committee who has studied the military for years, said the new money offered by the budget won't even make up for the operational deficit in the military.

"We think they need $700 to $800 million more just to do what they did last year," he said.

"And who's going to pay for Afghanistan?"

Source: Canadian Press

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