Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[KevinB]

Germany breaking rules to finance defence.... and infrastructure.

Germany’s future coalition partners to relax debt rules to boost defence budget

Conservative alliance and Social Democrats to propose exempting spending of more than 1% of GDP on defence

www.theguardian.com

...

Magical accounting.

Coming soon to Ottawa?

It’s not magical accounting it’s borrowing against one’s future to ensure a future.

Consider it like a mortgage for the country.

Debt shouldn’t be something to run up trivially, but I’d suggest that National Defense is a little bit more important these days.

 

[Breacher]

Also, with some of those bases, they weren't exactly closed, but downsized and the reg force assets moved out (1 RCR used to be in London, 3 PPCLI used to be Chilliwack).

Just to be pedantic, 3 PPCLI was never stationed in Chilliwack. They were at Work Point Barracks in Victoria, which was also closed. 1 CER, CFSME, and CFOCS were in Chilliwack at the time of closure. The only remaining military presence in Chilliwack that I am aware of is the HQ of 39 CER which is housed in the former 1 CER HQ building.

 

[GK .Dundas]

And you were doing so well..

How about reopening London as a full base?

Didn't one of the buildings get turned into some sort of convention space ?

 

[dapaterson]

Didn't one of the buildings get turned into some sort of convention space ?

An old armoury was sold and converted into a hotel - the Delta Armouries.

 

[GK .Dundas]

An old armoury was sold and converted into a hotel - the Delta Armouries.

Oh goodie, who gets to tell the hotel the previous residents/ inmates want to move back in .

 

[dapaterson]

Oh goodie, who gets to tell the hotel the previous residents/ inmates want to move back in .

It was a good divestment. Like many heritage buildings, maintenance cost was becoming excessive, and the space would not meet modern training needs.

The CAF needs heritage exemptions to let them raze old, non functional buildings.

 

[Underway]

Its a beautiful hotel, with a large amount of military paraphenielia in the hallways (particularly on the second floor), in honour of the previous occupants. They really did a good job with it.

 

[Furniture]

No- it's nothing like that at all.

It's recognizing that the shit tonne of people that do find a way to make it work in the area, because that's where they were raised, where their roots are, where they choose to live equals a massive employment and recruitment pool, if the terms of employment can be made to work for them.

"What do we need to do to make location X an attractive/tolerable posting for serving members from elsewhere" is a fundamentally different question than " how can the local population from location x contribute to fixing the recruitment/retention overall personnel shortage issue if things were done differently"

The problem with this sort of solution is it only works for essentially the Cbt arms, where you put hundreds of people from the same trade in a single location. What about all the smaller support dets that are required to keep the modern kit functioning, and keep the rest of the support functions alive?

When you have a det/section of 8 Veh Techs or 4 FSAs, how do you provide them with advancement and opportunity if they stay in that small det? We aren't struggling to fill the battalions as much as we are struggling to fill the support jobs that tend to work in small dets, and require somewhat frequent postings due to promotions.

 

[Kirkhill]

It’s not magical accounting it’s borrowing against one’s future to ensure a future.

Consider it like a mortgage for the country.

Debt shouldn’t be something to run up trivially, but I’d suggest that National Defense is a little bit more important these days.

Agree Kevin.

It is a worthwhile expenditure. But it is a worthwhile expenditure whether it comes out of general revenues or is separately recorded.

 

[IKnowNothing]

The problem with this sort of solution is it only works for essentially the Cbt arms, where you put hundreds of people from the same trade in a single location. What about all the smaller support dets that are required to keep the modern kit functioning, and keep the rest of the support functions alive?

When you have a det/section of 8 Veh Techs or 4 FSAs, how do you provide them with advancement and opportunity if they stay in that small det? We aren't struggling to fill the battalions as much as we are struggling to fill the support jobs that tend to work in small dets, and require somewhat frequent postings due to promotions.

Please note that I said "contribute to fixing" not "solve".

I'm not going to claim to be an expert, 
But I suppose my first question would be -do they really need to be provided with advancement and opportunity if staying in that small det provides with stability, a good living, a fulfilling career? Is promotion driven instability a feature or a bug?

The majority of civilian 310T's, skilled tradesmen, etc. get certified and then work their lives as journeymen, adding a side qual here and there - often spending years and decades working at the same small local company. The small minority do any kind of ladder climbing.