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The Liberal government’s spring economic update lays the foundation for a potential solution to two of the Canadian military’s most vexing problems — the dearth of equipment and skilled personnel. Absent from the fiscal plan, however, was a specific accounting of how the country managed to meet the NATO benchmark target of two per cent of Canada's gross domestic product. The economic update released Tuesday proposes $250 million over five years for skilled trades training under the umbrella of the Canadian Armed Forces.
It also proposes to establish the Defence Investment Agency (DIA) as a stand-alone entity with a fully fledged minister, independent of Public Services and Procurement Canada and "with expanded authorities" to move projects along more swiftly. To make that happen, the DIA will be given a budget of $103.8 million over five years. In his speech Tuesday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne highlighted the dramatic increase in defence spending over the last year — but he cautioned the work isn’t over. "We will continue to strengthen our defence capabilities, equip our forces with modern, Canadian-made equipment, and invest in our workers and our defence industry," Champagne said. Fully funded trades trainingSpecifically, the Department of National Defence plans to make it more attractive for people to join the military’s primary reserve by offering fully funded trades training, alongside the existing paid service within the part-time force. "Participants will commit to a period of Reserve service in exchange for subsidized education, strengthening both Canada’s skilled workforce and defence capacity," the economic update said. The government also plans to encourage cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers to learn skilled trades, and pledges to support them "through training to certification" should they choose that path. "We will expand hands-on training through the Cadets and Junior Canadian Rangers programs, including enhanced summer experiences and clearer connections to Reserve-based trades pathways," said the update.
The measures have the potential to address one of the biggest challenges the military faces as it struggles to increase the size of the force. The Defence Department has for years fallen short in terms of its authorized strength of 71,500 regular members and 30,000 reserves. As of last week, the military was short 8,546 members, both full and part-time, of the combined target. The military has had trouble expanding basic training, and more importantly trades training. Partnering with trade schoolsIn an interview with CBC News prior to the economic update, the country’s top military commander said the Forces have been trying to address the trades training bottleneck through increasing partnerships with community colleges. "We are reaching out to technical schools, for example, to conduct the technical courses," said Gen. Jennie Carignan, chief of the defence staff. Carignan added that such partnerships help because they remove the training burden from the military. "So we can exploit those resources that are outside of our training system, so we're having a lot of success doing this," she said. The skills training measures announced Tuesday are part of the Liberal government’s fiscal approach, which has been to leverage defence investment for the wider economy, said defence expert Dave Perry. "If this is something that’s successful and the take rate is meaningful" it will be of benefit, "but we’ve seen other initiatives focused on the Reserves that were good in intention and weak on delivery," said Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "If successful, it could kill two birds with one stone. It could help get more people into the military with specialized skills, that’s been a problem for a number of years. It could also help bolster the ranks of skilled trades people in Canada," he said. The economic update goes on at great length about the investments — and planned investments — in defence, and how they represent "the single largest year-on-year increase in defence investment in generations." What wasn’t spelled out clearly is how the $9.3 billion of additional investment in the Defence Department was spent. The update cites increased support for Ukraine and a pay raise for members of the Armed Forces, but also includes references to the construction of the navy’s new destroyers and the air force’s new P-8 maritime surveillance planes — projects that were already underway before the cash injection was announced last June. The list also cites the military’s Arctic support and new basing infrastructure, all of which was recently announced and is still in the planning phase. "The overall commitment of funding from this government has been remarkable," said Perry. "There has been very little explanation on where those billions of dollars are going." 来源链接：https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fiscal-update-military-skills-training-9.7180420 |
