Reservists training in Watrous, Saskatchewan

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 comes late in the fiscal year and is insufficient to restart all Reserve activities. But I am very pleased that units will be able to reactivate important work and training sooner rather than later.”

The original cuts to Reserve training came in the context of a series of “budget adjustments” undertaken by the Canadian Forces over the past two months in order to reallocate spending to what were deemed higher priorities by the military (see Ceasefire posts here, here, and here). But the decision to cut the training unleashed a storm of protest both inside and outside the armed forces, and exacerbated the sometimes tense relations between the Regular Force and the Reserves.

Ceasefire suggested in early January that the Army’s Close Combat Vehicle project was a better candidate for cutbacks, and apparently we weren’t the only ones to think so, as the CCV project was shelved later that month.

Photo by Cpl Bill Gomm, Public Affairs Photographer, 38 CBG HQ