Ceasefire.ca

Ceasefire.ca speaks out against Tory “Flying Cadillacs” deal

Friday, July 16, 2010

Quoted in the Canadian Press, Staples argued that, "These are ‘Flying Cadillacs’ that are not needed for the defence of Canada, and are unaffordable. The government should wait until national finances are in better shape, and use resources for other priorities, such as fixed wing search and rescue.”

Navy faces budget crunch?

Friday, May 14, 2010

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Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden, the commander of the Canadian Navy, are contradicting each other on the state of the Navy’s budget (David Pugliese, “Cash-strapped navy being cut to bone, analysts say,” Montreal Gazette, 12 May 2010; see also David Pugliese, “MacKay says no decision made on fleet reductions; Admiral and sailors [...]

Hard power, fuzzy logic

Friday, February 19, 2010

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper used the occasion of a visit to Canada’s aid efforts in Haiti on Tuesday to praise the virtues of his government’s spending on “hard power” items like the C-17 transport aircraft: “This fleet of new aircraft, the C-17 fleet, is a big part of making this response possible. I single out the [...]

Army “readjusts” reserve budget

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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The Canadian Army has reallocated $5 million to pay for Reserve training that it cancelled earlier this year as a cost-cutting measure. In a press release last week (”Class A Reserves receive $5 million for training,” 3 February 2010), Army commander Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie acknowledged that “Obviously the situation is not ideal, as this funding [...]

Military budget facing more “adjustments”

Thursday, January 21, 2010

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David Pugliese reports (Canadian military seeking another $233 million in savings, Vancouver Sun, 19 January 2010) that the Department of National Defence is facing another $233 million in budget “adjustments” by the end of March. However, like the $190 million in “adjustments” reported earlier, the money DND plans to save will not be removed [...]

Budget “adjustments” miss obvious defence spending waste

Friday, January 8, 2010

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As noted in an earlier post, all three branches of the Canadian Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force) are currently conducting budget “adjustments”, amounting to $190 million, that have to be made by the end of March. As part of this process, the Army is “adjusting” its budget by $80 million, and the Reserves are reportedly taking [...]

Air Force Association pushes CF-18 replacement

Monday, January 4, 2010

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The Air Force Association of Canada is pressing the government to proceed as soon as possible on a replacement for the CF-18 fighter, David Pugliese reports. The Next Generation Fighter program, expected to cost as much as $10 billion, is intended to procure about 65 aircraft to replace the CF-18 in the 2018-2023 period: The Canadian [...]