The Department of National Defence has launched
public consultations for the development of a new defence policy for Canada.
Canadian Defence Matters is attempting to come up with some answers to
the ten questions contained in the Defence Policy Review Public Consultation Document 2016
The final question asked by the Consultation paper
is in many ways the most important, and the one whose answers should form the
basis for a new Defence policy.
Under the section labeled “Questions relating to
contributing to the Defence budget” question ten asks “What resources will the CAF require to meet Canada’s defence needs?”
The section goes on to point out that “This new vision for defence must be
affordable” and that the Canadian military has been, on average, resourced
at around 1% of Canadian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the past decade while
noting that NATO guidelines indicate that member nations should aim to move
toward spending 2% of GDP on defence.
Perhaps the most important part of the guidelines
offered makes it clear that: “Canada assesses its defence spending in
terms of the level of resources required to support an effective and capable
CAF. Ultimately, the level of ambition we define for the CAF must be properly
resourced, which will require clear priorities and strategic decisions about
how to invest limited resources with maximum impact.”
Paying for the defence resources we need is
paramount. In many ways military
spending is a form of insurance. No
one likes paying for insurance because, like the military, the chances are that
we will never really need it. But if we do need it, like the military, Canada
will be very glad that it made the investment.
Just like a
homeowner, Canada needs to decide how much insurance we need, how much we can
afford, and what are the risks we are facing. Writing almost
seventy five years ago in his book “The Military Problems of Canada” about the
period between the First and Second World Wars C.P. Stacey, that doyen of
Canadian military historians, said “For
sixteen years (it would almost seem) no responsible Canadian statesman ever
paused to ask himself these simple and fundamental questions: If this peace
proves fleeting, what is the nature of the menaces that will threaten Canada?
What form of organization would offer the greatest security against them? How
far does the existing organization satisfy these needs?”
In some significant ways the domestic attitude
towards defence spending in Canada today is not that different from the
conditions that prevailed in Stacey’s time.
Like Raoul Dandurand,
Canada’s
delegate to the League of Nations from 1927 to 1930, it is still the opinion of
many that in international affairs Canada is “a fireproof house, far from inflammable materials.” Of course, it
is no truer now than it was then.
The majority of Canadians, and their elected
representatives, believe that war is discretionary, essentially a matter of
choice. Even in the face of everything we know about human nature and
everything we have learned from history it is still widely believed that we
will always be able to pick and choose our military involvements.
If it were true we could have a very different
military then the one we need, one that could put an emphasis on using its
resources for a wide variety of useful, if not strictly military purposes. We could have a military that prioritized
activities such as domestic search and rescue, infrastructure building, peace
keeping and job creation.
But what we need is a military based on a Defence Policy which considers a combination of known
threats and strives to maintain the broad range of military capabilities that are
necessary to a well-balanced force within a budget that we can afford.
Military
capability cannot be created overnight. Unlike insurance, you cannot buy a
military at the last minute. Modern militaries are tremendously complex and equipment
can take decades to acquire. Even more important are the people, it will take decades
to produce the leaders and organizations that can properly use the technology
on a modern battlefield.
“What
resources will the CAF require to meet Canada’s defence needs?” The resources the Canadian Armed Forces will
require to meet Canada’s defence needs are politicians and a general public
willing to ask the question; If this
peace proves fleeting, what is the nature of the menaces that will threaten
Canada? What form of organization would offer the greatest security against
them? How far does the existing organization satisfy these needs? and find
the resources to pay for the answers.
Defence Policy Review
Defence Policy Review Public Consultation Document
2016
