Why report advocating massive military cuts will be ‘a hard sell’

A major report that advocates streamlining the Canadian military by chopping headquarters staff sits in limbo, awaiting a champion to drive its recommendations home.

But with its author, Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie, leaving the military next month, that report’s future is very much in doubt.

On Aug. 3, Lt.-Gen. Leslie submitted his resignation to Gen. Walter Natynczyk, Chief of the Defence Staff.

“My military duty is complete,” wrote the former head of the army. He and his wife are currently on vacation in the Aegean. “On our return I have been invited to join a great Canadian corporation in the private sector,” Lt.-Gen. Leslie said in his letter.

He could not be reached for comment.

As Chief of Transformation, Lt.-Gen. Leslie was tasked by the Harper government with figuring out how the Canadian Forces could save money and prepare for future missions, even as it sought to replace aging air and naval fleets and as the government pushed for savings in order to eliminate the deficit.

He concluded the military could save $1-billion a year by trimming or redeploying 11,000 civilian, regular military and reserve personnel, mostly at National Defence headquarters.

But the report also contains dozens of complex recommendations that aim to streamline and merge operations. Sources who are not authorized to speak on behalf of the military say the document has received a cool reception from the senior ranks at the Canadian Forces and National Defence.

Alan Williams is a former assistant deputy minister of defence who created controversy when he testified last year that the government was wrong to proceed with the acquisition of a fleet of F-35 fighter jets without a competitive bidding process. He examined the report, which has been obtained by The Globe and Mail, Friday.

Its recommendations are “going to be a hard sell” within both the military and the government, he said. “There is always a tendency to status quo.”

Without a “champion,” as he put it, to push for the reforms, Mr. Williams predicted Lt.-Gen. Leslie’s report will join a long list of proposals to reform the military that have been quietly shelved.

“This will only get done if someone very senior says: Make it happen,” he added.

Is there a champion within the government itself? Defence Minister Peter MacKay was not available for comment. The minister’s spokesman, Jay Paxton, was non-committal.

“This government will use this report, and other tools, to better focus resources” and to meet the government’s deficit-reduction goals, he said.

As for Lt.-Gen. Leslie’s claim that defence headquarters had become overloaded with civilians and needed to be trimmed, Mr. Paxton said that the civilian side at National Defence had grown during the Afghan war to free up military personnel for front-line duties.

But just as “Canadians are tightening their belts” in difficult times, so too must all departments of government, including National Defence, he added.

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Source: Globe&Mail