According
to “Canadian Forces Joint Publication CFJP 01 Canadian Military Doctrine: The Role of Military Forces” “Military forces in democracies are
subordinate to the elected civil authority and are prohibited from operating
outside the bounds of jurisdiction set by that authority. In addition to combat
operations, they are often used for domestic missions such as search and
rescue, assistance to other government departments and agencies, aid to civil
power and for disaster relief operations both at home and abroad.
However, despite
the inherent flexibility and domestic utility of modern military forces, their
raison d’être remains armed conflict. This distinction separates military
forces from other security arms of the government such as police and border
patrol.”
Subordination
to the elected civil authority means that that government direction involves
defining what the Canadian Armed Forces must do for the nation and in turn, at
least in theory, the military dictates how those objectives can and should be
achieved.
By
stipulating what general military objectives are to be achieved, government
defence policy gives the CAF the orders it needs to get on with the job of
enhancing the safety and security of Canadians, supporting the Government of
Canada’s foreign policy and achieving other national security objectives.
Defence
policy also indicates into what military capabilities the Government is willing
to invest in order to achieve its objectives. This is an important point as
Government direction comes in two forms: defence policy and the provision of
resources.
It
is this last point, the provision of resources, that concerns us here. Writing
for the CBC Tony Keene has
suggested that there is a myth widely accepted by many in the military, by veterans
and by the civilian public that the Conservatives are the party of the Canadian
Armed Forces. He points out however that defence spending in Canada raises and
falls no matter which government is in power.
The argument can even be made that almost all significant improvements
in equipment, pay and allowances and family support came under Liberal regimes.
It
can be argued that governments, particularly Canadian governments, often use
the “provision of resources” as their main form of direction. Those
governments, regardless of party, have found it easy to say that they support
defence spending while restricting the resources available to the CAF to those
necessary to carry out the government’s actual policies.
This
is an easy theorem to test.
Writing
in the Air Force Journal in an article entitled “What Air Forces Do” Lieutenant-Colonel Brian L. Murray
observes that “Air forces exist to provide four fundamental services to the
nation: control of the air, movement of things through the air, observation of
things from the air and space, and when necessary, attacking things from the
air.”
If
this is true then the question becomes, has the government provided the
resources for the RCAF achieve these ends.
The answer is no. Even the provision of 16 new C-295’s for Fixed Wing
Search and Rescue has little or no effect on the core responsibilities of the
Air Force. These are responsibilities which it cannot meet with the resources
provided by this and previous governments.
The
government of Canada’s general military objectives would appear to be clear.
They want a military which appears to be capable of enhancing the safety and
security of Canadians, supporting the Government of Canada’s foreign policy and
achieving other national security objectives but one in which they do not have
to invest the amounts necessary to actually achieve those objectives.
With
words having little or no meaning in our new ‘post truth’ environment it is
only the provision of resources that can signal the governments true direction
to the Canadian Armed Forces and tell them, and us, what it is that they want
them to be able to do for the nation.
Canadian
Forces Joint Publication CFJP 01 Canadian Military Doctrine: The
Role of Military Forces
The
myth of one-party support for the Canadian Armed Forces
Trudeau
was Canada's top defence spender: study
What
Air Forces Do, Lt. Colonel Brian Murray
