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.”
Continue reading...Friday, May 14, 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Friday, February 19, 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, January 21, 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Friday, January 8, 2010
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 [...]
Continue reading...Monday, January 4, 2010
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 [...]
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Friday, July 16, 2010
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