2y ago

Federal government looking to cut $1 billion from National Defence budget

www.cbc.ca /news/politics/department-national-defence-budget-billion-1.6981974

The Liberal government is looking to cut almost $1 billion from the annual budget of the Department of National Defence — a demand the country’s top military commander says is prompting some “difficult” conversations within the military.

19 comments

My wife is in the forces. She's in the med centre right now because her forty year old rucksack is literally destroying her back. And she's having to buy things like proper boots and hearing protection (so that she hopefully doesn't end up with lifelong hearing loss or tinnitus like many soldiers do) out of her own pocket because the army can't afford them.
When the army talks about "putting off new equipment purchases," that's what they mean. Good people, who want to serve our country, having their bodies literally destroyed by shitty, outdated, substandard equipment, so that we can save a couple of dollars on our taxes.
- Private sector has to buy their own boots, glasses, ear plugs and gloves. What's the difference?
  
  Many workplaces provide essential safety gear like cheap ear plugs, safety glasses and reflective work wear, some even provide a yearly boot payout. A lot of these jobs do tend to be government or bigger industrial gigs.
  If you require specific safety gear, you should ask your employer if they are willing to supply it.
  
  Other than boots, I've never worked anywhere that didn't provide PPE. Some of the jankier places had to be forced to provide it by citing regulations. Some of the better places also had boot allowances. Most places, the gloves were fit for purpose, but not what I would buy if spending my own money.
  The basic principle is that an employee cannot be asked to perform dangerous or unhealthy activities without training and equipment. Not every jurisdiction is the same. YMMV.
  
  How much of a pathetic bootlicker for capitalism do you have to be to say something like this, rather than "If it's required for your job it should be paid for by your job", regardless of what sector someone works in?
  No matter what, she cannot go out and buy a rucksack in CADPAT because outside of military contractors such a thing does not exist. Her options for hearing protection are limited because whatever she wears has to work with her standard issue kit, which she is required to use. The reason military procurement is a thing is because all of this stuff has to work together in very specific ways.
Imagine, just imagine, the kind of society we had if we were willing to tax the wealthy at the levels needed to provide the services we need.
But we don't. Instead of taxing people, we've decided it's better to just let them hoard cash like Scrooge McDuck because*..mumble..Art Laffer..mumble..supply side..cough..trickle-down..mumble..mumble* instead of either forcing them to invest it into something productive and/or taxing it if they don't.
- Yes, the wealthy all keep their fortunes in a Scrooge McDuck vault, slowly losing it all to inflation as a flex on us poors. 🙄
  
  Said the poor
Hear me out. Let's make a few nukes. Sure we cut back on military spending, but if you try anything... nuked. We have the uranium.
- Nuclear maintenance is very expensive.
  Nukes are actually terrible for defense purposes, since starting a nuclear war is a very 'all or nothing' affair, which means your choices are reduced to "Armageddon" or "Let the other side have their way" whenever a crisis comes up.
  
  Nukes are actually terrible for defense purposes, since starting a nuclear war is a very ‘all or nothing’ affair, which means your choices are reduced to “Armageddon” or “Let the other side have their way” whenever a crisis comes up.
  See: Russia and every final warning it has given over Ukraine. Since the US knows they have nothing conventionally and doesn't buy that they're going to end the world over a shipment of helmets or whatever it gets ignored.
  
  Apparently, having nukes grants you the "You just crossed another red line!" defence.
  
  Nukes are a good deterrent against attacks on civilians. There's a reason Ukraine hasn't started lobbing rockets at Russian cities.
- I mean, that's why proliferation happens. It's great for the country doing it but brings us all closer to apocalypse.
  In our specific case we're not North Korea and probably don't want to piss off the entire rest of the world, though.
- Post WW1 we were a global power because we had one of the largest logistics chains of chemical weapons.
  Allegedly that played a role in the Nazis not using chemical weapons on troops, because Canada completely outclassed them on that.
  
  Huh, interesting. Did Canada have an oil industry going already somewhere in the 40's? Usually that stuff is made in petrochemical facilities.
Why? Really, this seems like the last moment for that. We should be beefing it up.

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