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Topic: Manley Report. (Read 2932 times)
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Documents: Afghan spending may lead to ships being tied up
By MURRAY BREWSTER The Canadian Press
Fri. Apr 18 - 4:47 AM
OTTAWA — Both the navy and air force’s slice of the National Defence budget pie is being increasingly chewed up by the war in Afghanistan, federal documents reveal.
Background records, released as part of the Feb. 26 federal budget, acknowledge what members of the Forces have been saying privately for months: that the deployment in Kandahar is forcing the military to rob Peter to pay Paul.
The records say the war will "affect current defence planning" and additional costs not picked up by the federal Treasury Board will be absorbed in the overall defence budget.
In some cases it "will direct funding away from routine equipment and infrastructure maintenance."
"Readiness of the CF (Canadian Forces) may be affected, dependent on the degree of reprioritization required," the department’s report on plans and priorities said.
The budget woes come even though the federal Conservatives have increased spending at National Defence to $18.2 billion in the current year — a jump of $1.4 billion over last year.
The navy was particularly candid, stating that "in the current resource constrained environment, it is understood that there are insufficient resources to fully support all the operational readiness requirements."
That could potentially mean tying up ships. At the beginning of the budget process, defence insiders say, the navy is promised a certain amount of dollars for sea days, fuel and expenses.
But the internal juggling act that follows leaves admirals holding their breath on whether they will make it through with enough money to end of the year.
In 2007, the navy needed a $5-million bump up in its budget in order to put to sea for a routine patrol. The navy is currently examining how ships are part of its high-readiness task forces on both coasts.
Things are not much better over at the air force.
Senior planners at the 1st Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg were asked last summer to study a proposed a 32-per-cent reduction in money used for fuel and spare parts.
At the time, defence sources told The Canadian Press that the proposal was being studied for the new budget year and the reduction would lead to less flying time for CF-18s, the C-130 Hercules, CP-140 Auroras and CH-146 Sea Kings.
Published reports on Thursday said Chief of Air Staff, Lt.-Gen. Angus Watt expressed those concerns to government and asked for an additional $540 million over three years.
A spokeswoman for Watt said the request was made last November and the air force has now received an increase for this year’s budget. "Although the initial allocation for the air force was below the required amount to meet all equipment demands, the government has since increased the funding by an extra $97 million," said Lt.-Cmdr. Natalie Garcia.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3261
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Bravo!
Italy to stay in Afghanistan: new foreign minister
28 April 2008 | 13:07 | FOCUS News Agency
Rome. Italian troops will stay in Afghanistan despite the change of government in Rome, the incoming foreign minister said in an interview published Monday, AFP informs.
"It's not time to pull out," Franco Frattini told the Corriere della Sera.
"The attack on Hamid Karzai shows once again that Italy and its partners not only cannot withdraw from Afghanistan but also that they should pursue the UN and NATO goals" of democratising the country and fighting the Taliban, he said.
President Karzai escaped Sunday after militants attacked a military parade with rockets and gunfire, leaving three people dead including an MP and a 10-year-old boy who was killed apparently in return
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3261
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Really, what did he expect?
Conformance? Or what we have been getting for the past two years... lip service and delaying tactics.
Manley concerned Afghan panel recommendations not being met
Last Updated: Thursday, May 22, 2008 | 11:50 PM ET Comments17Recommend16
CBC News
The chair of the panel that examined Canada's mission in Afghanistan told CBC News in an exclusive interview that he is concerned the federal government may not be acting on key recommendations more than four months after his report was tabled.
John Manley responds to CBC senior correspondent Brian Stewart.John Manley responds to CBC senior correspondent Brian Stewart. (CBC)In its final report presented in January, the panel headed by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government for being too close-mouthed in its communications strategy for the Afghan mission.
The panel also said the effectiveness of Canada's military and civilian activities in Afghanistan and the progress of Afghan security and government must be tracked.
But in an interview with the CBC senior correspondent Brian Stewart that aired Thursday, Manley said the Canadian government has not helped public understanding of the mission or of the many complex issues surrounding it.
"It certainly concerns me if we are not getting the information out to Canadians," said Manley, who, along with the other members of the panel, visited Afghanistan for 10 days in November.
"The Canadian focus is less and less on what the troops are doing, what we should be doing and in fact, whether our report is being implemented."
In March, the Conservatives, with support from the Liberals, passed a motion that would keep Canadian soldiers in Kandahar until 2011.
The motion was contingent on two recommendations of the Manley report: that NATO allies provide 1,000 extra troops to help the Canadian effort and that Ottawa secure access to unmanned surveillance drones and large helicopters to transport Canadian troops around the region.
But details of the Afghan mission are still subject to tight information control by the Prime Minister's Office, while key departments, such as Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency, remain media averse.
During his interview, Manley said the concerns raised by the panel surrounding what the government reveals about the mission are serious enough to threaten the mission's overall success.
"Our report included a large assessment of how things were going, and it was not a glowing assessment," Manley said. "In fact, I think we were pretty clear that if things didn't change, the whole effort in Afghanistan was in real peril of being lost."
The five-member panel also said Canada must place greater emphasis on diplomacy and reconstruction, and the Canadian military focus must shift gradually from combat to training Afghan national security forces.
Government working on 'signposts of progress'
A special cabinet subcommittee has been set up to co-ordinate Canada's efforts, as recommended by the Manley report.
Senior government officials insist the cabinet is very focused on Afghanistan, while sources say task forces within Foreign Affairs and CIDA are working to unveil a series of "signposts of progress" on the mission, perhaps as soon as mid-June, the CBC's Stewart said.
But Roland Paris, associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Centre for International Policy Studies, told CBC News that despite the urgent need for more information on the Afghan mission, there has been "no significant change" in the level of transparency or detailed reporting from the Canadian government.
"What we've been lacking is a very specific set of goals and clear benchmarks that we can use to evaluate whether or not we are making progress toward these goals," Paris told CBC News.
He added there is "much more detailed, much more unvarnished reporting" on the mission in Iraq than the mission in Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said the government would increase the number of briefings it offers reporters on the Afghan mission in an attempt to be more open about what is happening there.
"Our goal is to better inform Canadians about Canada's activities on the ground," she told reporters at a press conference in February.
But Oda also suggested the media was at fault for government's difficulty in communicating the Canadian mission's good news stories.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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Logged
?? ranrad