The Royal Canadian Legion on the Defence Policy Update
19 Abril 2024 - 9:12AM
The Royal Canadian Legion is sharing additional thoughts related to
the federal government’s recently released Defence Policy Update,
in the wake of the 2024 federal budget. As with its response to the
budget, the Legion is encouraged by the commitments but troubled by
what it sees as a lack of immediacy in implementation, and
therefore possibly disastrous results for our country operationally
if processes and timing do not align with current requirements.
“If our country does not urgently tackle the critical issues
that face our defence department the results will primarily affect
our still serving Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members,” says Bruce
Julian, Dominion President. “Ultimately this could mean highly
increased risk in the field, and unnecessarily negative outcomes
physically and mentally for our troops.”
The update does a great job of highlighting major security
factors that Canada needs to consider, including climate change,
the Arctic, Russia and China, new technologies, artificial
intelligence, and quantum computing.
The policy objectives are clear. The commitments also represent
a significant increase in defence spending, the best since 2015.
There are positive plans for new capabilities in the areas of
intelligence and cybersecurity and in purchasing new aircraft and
other defence systems.
When considering the full context of the policy update however,
there is much to be worried about.
To begin, most of the spending commitments will not be fulfilled
until after the next election and as far off as 20 years from now.
CAF members need new gear, tools, and training today, not in 20
years.
This, which was an “urgent” policy update, took two years to
complete and only calls for the “exploration” of some significant
capability options without setting firm deadlines. The pledges made
still do not meet Canada’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) commitment; and without a major evolution of the current
procurement process, it will ensure Canada will not hit its
target.
While new funding is mostly focused on capital equipment,
upcoming budget cuts are focused on operations and maintenance -
which will likely affect readiness: already a current problem.
There is a huge disconnect here. The impact of funding pressures
and cutbacks will fall squarely upon recruiting, retention, and
training.
While the policy update does attempt to address recruitment and
retention, and overall quality of life, implementation realities
mean things are likely to remain status quo in the near future. For
example, the CAF is 16,000 personnel short, and the policy update
indicates it will take eight years to resolve. This shortage is not
a new development, and the Legion questions why it is taking so
long for noticeable movement in this obviously crucial area.
Further, there appears to be limited effort to ensure retention.
Despite a stated military housing shortage of 7,000 the proposed
plan - $300 million over 20 years – provides little urgent relief.
Dedicated military housing is needed now not in the future.
The Legion also notes that while there is a government
commitment to produce a National Security Strategy every four
years, the last one was in 2004. No strategy = no timely and
aligned processes = undue pressure on our CAF members.
Overall, this reality is especially problematic because as the
Legion recently illustrated, some of the policy items outlined are
contingent upon other timely actions to have a tangible effect:
- The timely delivery of needed new
equipment is just around the corner, but there will likely be
insufficient personnel to operate it.
- Excellent initiatives and
commitments are planned to modernize the CAF’s Navy, Air Force,
Space and Cyber components, but its regular and reserve Army will
remain in a poor state of readiness without sufficient
changes.
- There is a welcome increase in
defence spending but it comes alongside the reality of defence
budget cutbacks, so the funding increase is not what it looks
like.
- There is a crucial and positive
proposal to fix the outdated procurement process, but still no
actual completion date for a planned – and urgently needed -
procurement strategy.
“I can’t repeat this enough,” says Julian. “We need to take
action now, not in five, ten or twenty years at which time the
situational environment may have changed and then we’re possibly
back to square one or worse.”
For more information on the full list of Legion priority areas,
please
visit: https://www.legion.ca/advocating-for-veterans/advocating-for-change
About The Royal Canadian LegionFounded in 1925,
the Legion is Canada’s largest Veteran support and community
service organization. We are a non-profit organization with a
national reach across Canada as well as branches in the U.S. and
Europe. With 250,000 members, many of whom volunteer an
extraordinary amount of time to their branches, our strength is in
our numbers.
Public Relations / Media Inquiries: PublicRelations@Legion.ca/
343-540-7604 - Nujma
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