MP Hill says New Defence Strategy Needed to Win the War Against Liberal Neglect

December 3, 2003

OTTAWA – Jay Hill, Member of Parliament for Prince George-Peace River, responding to the release of a study by Queen’s University and the Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDAI), called upon the federal government to accept the impending crisis in the Canadian Forces as fact so that work to rebuild the forces can begin. 

“The Liberals are in denial.  How many more experts must come forward before they acknowledge that their chronic under-funding of our armed forces and their decade-long failure to develop a national defence strategy has crippled our military?” asked Hill.  “The time for warnings is over,” Hill added. “A crisis in the Canadian Forces is now unavoidable.” 

The Queen’s-CDAI study, Canada Without Armed Forces?, confirms that no action and no amount of funding increases will be able to prevent the failure of vital Canadian military capabilities over the next five years.  The paper further predicts that without an effective federal defence policy, our forces face “mass extinction” between 2010 and 2015.

“The Liberals haven’t even produced a defence policy paper in almost a decade,” said Hill.  “The Canadian Alliance has released two defence papers in that time.  The proposals in our 2003 white paper, The New North Strong and Free, are closely reflected in the study released today, including recommendations on the investment in equipment and the need to increase the strength of the regular forces to at least 80,000 personnel.” 

“It may be a case of ‘too little, too late’ to avoid a crisis in this decade, but the federal government now has a responsibility to mitigate the fallout and minimize the long-term impact on our military capabilities and our role in the international community.”