Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Conservatives Didn’t Lie About Canada First Defence Strategy, Says Jason Kenney

First it was the details regarding the proposed purchase of the F-35 stealth fighter, including a $10 billion accounting discrepancy in the cost.

Then came discrepancies in the cost of the Libyan mission ($50 million vs. $100 million) and questions about whether Parliament and the public was getting the full story on the price tag for that war.

Now there is the news that the Conservative government has known for at least a year (but kept quiet) that its Canada First Defence Strategy was “unaffordable.” That has prompted DND bureaucrats to recommend pushing the “reset” button to re-evaluate the plan’s “level of ambition,” according to DND documents.

That, in turn, has given opposition MPs another issue in which to paint the Harper government as less than forthright when it comes to informing Parliament and the public about spending….as well as highlighting yet more problems with military spending under the Conservatives.

“Why did the Conservatives hide the fact that their defence plan was unaffordable from the public?” NDP MP Nathan Cullen wanted to know on Monday.
Conservative minister Jason Kenney rejected that. “We told the truth and acted to rebuild our military,” Kenney said. “This government has made historic, unparalleled investments in Canada’s modern history to provide equipment and resources to our men and women in uniform.”

The NDP’s defence critic Jack Harris focused on the $50,000 cost of the F-35 press conference, throwing in for good measure references to Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s now famous Cormorant helicopter flight from his vacation spot.

But Julian Fantino, Associate Minister of National Defence, responded that the press conference was necessary “to ensure public media and industry awareness.”

Fantino countered that the NDP would not invest in the Canadian Forces. “The issue here is that we are doing the best we can under the circumstances to provide our men and women the tools they need to do their job, and issues of use of military assets is up to the men and women of the military,” he said.

Expect, however, the focus of the opposition to continue to be on the problems with the Canada First Defence Strategy.

There is a lot of potential ammunition, with many quotes/speeches from ministers and bureaucrats praising the strategy.

Take for instance this statement from Defence Department Deputy Minister Robert Fonberg at the Standing Committee Public Accounts on Dec. 7, 2010:

“I’ll be quite brief. The Canada First defence strategy in many ways, from a National Defence/Canadian Forces perspective, was a breakthrough approach to modernizing the Canadian Forces, their equipment, and infrastructure to grow the force and ensure they were ready to do the missions asked of them by the Government of Canada. One of the major breakthroughs was the commitment to a 20-year funding line, which was adequate to deal with the growth of the Canadian Forces by establishing 70,000 regular force members and 30,000 reserve force members. But from a capital procurement perspective, the breakthrough in the Canada First defence strategy was a commitment to a 20-year funding line, including a 2% per year escalator, to make sure the funds were in place to cover–along with other things like accrual accounting–the actual cost of the then expected capital equipment required to modernize the CF.”

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: David Pugliese

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