http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/douglas-bland-get-ready-for-the-defence-cuts
Douglas Bland: Get ready for the defence cuts
Prime Minster Justin Trudeau promised Canadians that he would “invest in our Armed Forces,” but to date he has not explained how he will do so. Rather, on April 6, the National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced not a review to develop a new defence policy, but a “defence consultation” meant to “help set future direction and priorities” for the Canadian Forces.
Why has the government launched this complicated public consultation, instead of a focused defence policy review? Previous policy reviews always provided opportunities for citizens, scholars, and defence-related organizations and institutes to contribute directly to such policy reviews. Why could a wide survey of Canadian’s opinions on defence policy not be incorporated into a comprehensive review?
It appears that Trudeau’s consultations are merely intended to cloak until next year or beyond the government’s intention to make deep cuts to the Canadian Forces and the defence budget. This isn’t a new approach. Prime minister Jean Chrétien used the same tactics in 1994
On Feb. 23, 1994, with Chrétien’s support, the Senate and the House of Commons created a Special Joint Committee (SJC) on Canada’s Defence Policy to undertake “a review of Canadian defence policy.” Later that year, the SJC presented its recommendations as to “the principles, purposes, and objectives (that) should guide our government in setting out Canada’s defence policy.” The committee’s final report was widely praised by citizens, scholars, senators, and members of parliament. Chrétien, however, was not pleased.
Almost immediately after the eport was made public, then-defence minister David Collenette, tabled the government’s Defence White Paper, a policy developed in great secrecy while the SJC was in session. In his introduction to the white paper — and to the outrage of some members of the SJC — Collenette simply declared: “The SJC played an integral role in shaping Canada’s new defence policy. … (However) the committee’s recommendations concerning the size of the Regular Force were judged to be inconsistent with the financial parameters within which the DND must operate. Cuts deeper than those envisioned by the SJC will be required to meet the Government’s deficit reduction target.”
No more was heard of the SJC report during Chrétien’s time in government.
The reality was that Chrétien had decided, as he makes clear in his memoir, to reduce significantly defence spending and that objective became Canada’s national defence policy.
Prime Minister Trudeau is following Chrétien’s lead, but he needs a credible rational to support his defence budget cuts and time to construct an “in the national interest” rationale for them. Thus, his scheme to let Canadians “inform the development of a new defence policy for Canada” may simply be — as was the 1994 SJC for Chrétien — a shield meant to protect the government in the short term should anyone ask, “What’s Canada’s national defence policy?”
If the advisory panel concludes that Canadians support the need for an increase, and not cuts, in defence spending, we should expect Sajjan one day to announce — Collenette-like — “The public consultations recommendations concerning defence policy were judged to be inconsistent with the financial parameters within which the DND must operate.”
Afterward, perhaps close to the next election, Trudeau’s real defence policy will be unveiled.
National Post
Douglas Bland is a retired Canadian Army officer and professor emeritus at Queen’s University.