In his speech, Sajjan confirmed that chronic underfunding has left all three branches of the military stretched to their breaking point.Īnd that’s a shame, because no one heard him. It was what a soldier-turned-defence-minister should sound like. But Sajjan, at least, talked about the issue as it truly is. Canada’s post-Second World War history on defence policy speaks, in tragic terms, for itself. We’ll wait to see what the Liberals actually bring to the table, and we confess we have our doubts as to their sincerity. Sajjan’s words aren’t themselves an investment.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. And even a well equipped force can’t do its job properly without constant training, and Canada’s units are getting less and less of that. While much of its equipment still has some life in it - Afghan War-era crash-procurements helped - it’s only a matter of time before it, too, will require costly replacements and upgrades. The Army’s units are understrength and the shuttering of recruiting offices hasn’t helped. The Air Force’s major equipment either needs outright replacement (our elderly search-and-rescue fleet our diminishing squadrons of nearly 40-year-old CF-18 jets) or mid-life upgrades (our utility helicopters). It has no destroyers, critical to modern operations, and no supply ships, leaving our only remaining heavy ships - our newly retrofitted frigates - either dependent on allies for basic supplies or limited to coastal waters, the world’s most heavily armed fisheries patrol. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receiptīut first, to his remarks: Sajjan confirmed that chronic underfunding, stretching back generations, has left all three branches of the military stretched beyond their breaking point.
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