Navy, air force will still play major roles, Martin insists
PM won't reveal details of leaked review making army primary branch of military
By CAMPBELL CLARK
From Friday's Globe and Mail
28 Jan 05
FREDERICTON â †Prime Minister Paul Martin sought yesterday to deliver reassurance that Canada's navy and air force will retain a major role in national defence despite leaked plans to make the army the primary branch of the military.
While Mr. Martin would not comment in detail until the foreign-policy review is published in coming weeks, ministers publicly confirmed the broad lines of reforms outlined in a report in The Globe and Mail yesterday.
The leaked policy paper calls for the army to be given the primary role within the military, with the navy and air force given support functions; for foreign aid to be focused on a far smaller list of countries; and for more foreign-service officers to be posted abroad rather than in Ottawa.
Mr. Martin insisted yesterday that the navy and air force will still be important, but declined to address specifics.
"Obviously, the detailed answer to your question will wait until the documents come out," he said. "But let me tell you -- and this has certainly been confirmed with [incoming Chief of Defence Staff] General [Rick] Hillier -- and that is that all of the various services are going to play a very important role in the defence of Canada and the enhancement of our role in the world."
Defence Minister Bill Graham refused to take questions, however, on the early leak of a policy that will undoubtedly cause grumbling within Canada's military.
The Prime Minister said the foreign policy paper is intended to ensure that Canada plays a major part "in terms of both the defence of North America and our role in the world," and that the aim was to ensure Canada picks its spots in foreign affairs.
"We intend to focus, whether we're talking about our activities in North America or whether we're talking about our activities in Africa or in terms of the emerging economies," Mr. Martin said.
International Co-operation Minister Aileen Carroll said Canada does want to focus its aid on fewer countries -- not reducing overall foreign-aid spending, but placing bigger sums in fewer countries and working in conjunction with other aid donors such as Britain, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
"Obviously, if you're going to work with fewer than 157 countries and get it down to considerably less, there will be countries that we will gradually move off. We have done so very successfully with Thailand and other countries, and we definitely will be doing so, not in an abrupt manner, but certainly in a definitive manner, at the outcome of this," she said.
That does not mean all aid will be stopped to countries that are relatively affluent in global terms, such as Russia or China, because Canada will continue to stress the building of institutions as part of its agenda to promote good governance, Ms. Carroll said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew declined to indicate the scope of the redeployment of foreign-service officers that is planned under the review, saying only that he wants a "substantial increase" in the number posted in embassies and consulates abroad, rather than at the Foreign Affairs Department. "Right now we only have 25 per cent of our diplomats who are in international missions. And 75 per cent are at the headquarters. This is the lowest proportion of all G8 countries," Mr. Pettigrew said. "I want to increase it."
NDP parliamentary leader and defence critic Bill Blaikie said, "It's important to have more boots on the ground so we can be a meaningful resource to the international community for genocide prevention and humanitarian assistance.'' But he warned that the shift in government priorities might cripple the navy and the air force. We "can't let the other two services go into decline in order to do this," he said in a telephone interview from Manitoba.
And Mr. Blaikie cautioned that there would be no NDP support for more money unless it generated a military more capable of operating independently.
"Whatever increase in defence spending the NDP might countenance . . . it's not to make us a better inter-operable army for American foreign and defence policy."
At the same time, Mr. Martin indicated that officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States are working on nailing down a date for a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox.
... (
Full Article)
