Our soldiers should not be used as political pawns

OTTAWA—On the morning of March 21, Minister of National Defence Anita Anand held a press conference to announce a $1.4-billion contract to expand the training facilities for the Joint Task Force 2 (JTF-2). For those unfamiliar with the term JTF-2, this is an elite special forces unit that has long been dubbed “Canada’s Secret Commandos.” Their role is that of counterterrorism and special operation combat missions, similar to that of the United Kingdom’s Special Air Service (SAS) or the United States’ Delta Force. Keen-eyed followers of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) will know that the JTF-2 has conducted special ops missions in the former Yugoslavia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine. Highly regarded by their international counterparts, the JTF-2 is considered to be among the best in the world. However, due to the secrecy necessary for them to be effective in their role, the JTF-2’s many successful exploits remain largely unknown to the average Canadian. Thus, it was a bit surprising that Anand would announce this expansion construction contract for the JTF-2’s Dwyer Hill facilities in Ottawa with such fanfare. In fact, it was such a different approach that some cynical reporters had the audacity to ask Anand about the timing of the announcement coming just two days before U.S. President Joe Biden’s historic visit to Ottawa. Was this $1.4-billion contract simply intended to pacify the Americans with an apparent boost in Canada’s defence spending, they asked. While Anand did her best to avoid directly answering this question, thanks to some solid reporting by Ottawa Citizen journalist Dave Pugliese, we now know that was indeed Anand’s intention. It turns out that the public consultations and environmental studies for the expansion of the JTF-2 installation had begun in the spring of 2021. The Liberals approved the $1.4-billion project in June 2022 and the first contract was signed on Nov. 22, 2022. While officially, the construction is set to begin on May 1, the government has already spent more than $800,000 on the JTF-2 facility expansion. Senior military officials privately acknowledged to Pugliese that the announcement of this significant infrastructure investment was deliberately delayed to coincide with the Biden visit. As a proud Canadian, I would like to think that our defence budget is spent for the purpose of providing security, rather than simply appeasing our American neighbours. Under the administration of former U.S. president Donald Trump, Canada and other NATO members that were not spending at least two per cent of their GDP on defence were labelled “shirkers.” The arbitrary two per cent marker fails to take into account the enormous discrepancy in NATO members’ GDP. In terms of actual dollars spent on defence, Canada ranks sixth among the 30 NATO nations. Canada presently spends around 1.3 per cent of its GDP on defence, and meeting the U.S.-stated objective of two per cent would require an additional $18-billion a year over the next five years. That is one helluva lot of health-care and education money that would be redirected into defence spending. It is also worth pointing out that the same Colonel Blimps who lobby the government to spend the two per cent of GDP on defence use the fear of China’s militarization as basis for their argument. Funny thing about that is the fact that China is somehow “militarizing” by spending just 1.3 per cent of its GDP on defence. Yes folks, Canada is a defence “shirker” and China is on war footing while we both spend the same 1.3 per cent of our GDP on defence. However, if this is all about achieving an arbitrary percentage to appease the U.S. and NATO, why not expand the infrastructure investment across all Canadian Forces bases? If construction costs count as defence spending, why not embark on a massive project to build quality housing for our service members? In the post-Second World War era, every base had a community of tiny homes known as personnel married quarters (PMQs), while the single service members lived in communal barracks. Times have changed, but across many bases, those same tiny PMQs are the only housing personnel can afford. The CAF presently has a recruiting and retention problem that has left our regular and reserve forces short of some 16,500 personnel. Our allies want us to spend more for the sake of spending more, so why not improve the quality of life for all members and stimulate the Canadian construction industry at the same time? Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. The Hill Times

Our soldiers should not be used as political pawns

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Our soldiers should not be used as political pawns

As a proud Canadian, I would like to think that our defence budget is spent for the purpose of providing security, rather than simply appeasing our American neighbours.

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