Owning up to the defence debacle

OTTAWA—On March 7, National Defence Minister Bill Blair gave a keynote speech at the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence in the storied ballroom of Ottawa's landmark Château Laurier hotel. The room was packed with senior military officers, industry executives, and academics all expectantly anticipating Blair to try and sugarcoat the current state of the Canadian military. It has been the traditional playbook of the Liberals, and prior to that the Harper Conservatives, to blame the hated media for portraying the Canadian Armed Forces in a negative light. This time around, Blair chose to go a completely different route. In his opening statement, the minister singled out the CBC's Murray Brewster and praised him on his most recent exposé. The title of Brewster's story was the "State of Canadian Armed Forces' Combat readiness growing worse, government report warns." The subhead more specifically noted that the "Department of National defence report also says almost half of the military's equipment is 'unserviceable.'” It would be pretty tough to sugarcoat that to a room packed with many of the same officers who had a hand in drafting the report to which Brewster was referring. So instead, Blair essentially owned up to the shit show, albeit laying some of the blame for the mess on the former Conservative government. The internal government report Brewster cited in his story provided a laundry list of current shortfalls crippling the Canadian Armed Forces. Apparently, the Royal Canadian Air Force, which is in the process of celebrating its 100th anniversary, is in the worst shape of the three service branches. According to the report, 55 per cent of the RCAF's fighters, maritime aviation, search and rescue, tactical aviation, trainers, and transport planes are considered to be “unserviceable.” That means just 45 per cent of the inventory actually still flies. The Royal Canadian Navy came in a not-so-distant second worse, with 54 per cent of their frigates, submarines, Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships, and Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels in no state to deploy. For those optimists looking for how full the glass is, that means 46 per cent of the RCN is able to report "ready, aye, ready.” The rest of the fleet is beached. Coincidentally, the same day Blair spoke, the Ottawa Citizen ran a cover story outlining problems the Navy ise having with brand-new Arctic Offshore Patrol ships. Namely, that they experience corrosion-causing flooding. The DND had tried to convince Citizen reporter David Pugliese that the alleged flooding was negligible, but the video footage supplied and published by the paper indicated otherwise. Comparatively, the Canadian Army was the only branch that managed what could arguably considered a barely passing grade with just 46 per cent of its primary combat equipment and vehicles considered hors d'combat. That means a less than comforting 54 per cent still rolls and fires. However, given the acute shortage of spare parts, ammunition, and trained technicians, even this marginal result is bound to diminish unless the course of the CAF can be drastically altered—and quickly.Personnel shortages are the major crippling factor at present, with the CAF short nearly 16,000 service members out of a combined authorized Reserve and Regular Force strength of 115,000. Blair had to admit that one of the solutions to the recruiting problem had been to remove the prerequisite that an applicant be a Canadian citizen. As of last year, one needed only to be a permanent resident to enlist. According to another recent CBC report, that policy change resulted in more than 21,000 permanent residents signing up at recruiting centres. Unfortunately, due to the lengthy process required for security background tests on these individuals, fewer than 100 of those recruits are actually in uniform today. While Blair openly admitted in his speech that the present CAF is in terrible shape, he made no concrete announcements and gave no specific timelines as to when the Liberals will even announce their long-anticipated Defence Policy Update. This was formerly the Defence Policy Review undertaken on an “urgent” basis following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Blair would only say that this new policy paper would come “soon.” Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. The Hill Times

Owning up to the defence debacle

It would be pretty tough to sugarcoat the military’s failings to a room full of many of the same officers who had a hand in drafting a report outlining its issues.

Canada’s aging crisis and a call for reform in eldercare

As COP29 wraps up, will Canada finally stop funding fossils this fall?

Addressing the threat of antimicrobial resistance

The wisdom of Homer Simpson and Aaron Sorkin

Climate finance should target resilient food systems

Trump’s ‘America First’ plans may undermine global trade

Canada’s military gutted by politics

Time to admit the obvious: the CAF’s status quo isn’t working

Armed Forces under new management, but new CDS faces tough challenges

Let’s mobilize our veterans

Stopping the CAF ‘death spiral’

News

Get free news updates

Opinion

Submit a guest opinion article

resources

Advertise

subscribe

get help

Get free news updates

Submit a guest opinion article

Owning up to the defence debacle

It would be pretty tough to sugarcoat the military’s failings to a room full of many of the same officers who had a hand in drafting a report outlining its issues.

Get The Weekend Point of View Newsletter