Funding new priorities

Marching Orders
How Canada abandoned peacekeeping – and why the UN needs us now more than ever

Funding new priorities

In Canada, the 2001 federal budget was pushed through Parliament only a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks, injecting $7.7 billion of new funding into national security agencies, including the Department of National Defence. The government’s stated goal was “to improve Canada’s ability to detect, prevent and respond to threats at home, and to fund Canada’s participation in the international military campaign against terrorism.”20

Achieving this, it would require transforming the Canadian Forces into a lighter, swifter and more lethal force, achieving greater “interoperability” with U.S. military forces.

In no time at all, U.S. military priorities, no matter how misunderstood, were being imported into Canada. General Rick Hillier’s predecessor, General Ray Henault, described his goals in the Chief of Defence Staff ’s 2001-2002 annual report:

Another key driver that is shaping future thinking is the rapid pace of technological change and the resulting revolution in military affairs . . . .

Collectively, these developments pose significant challenges for Canada and other NATO/coalition allies in terms of their ability to maintain interoperability, particularly with the United States. The U.S. is the world leader in the development of new military technologies, concepts, and doctrine, and spends more on military research and development than the rest of NATO combined. Keeping pace and maintaining interoperability with the U.S. where necessary is therefore going to be a major challenge for the CF.21

The following year’s annual CDS report was titled A Time for Transformation, and General Henault reported that “we must continue to build on our defence relationship with the U.S. as part of both countries’ efforts to strengthen continental security following September 11th. The U.S. is Canada’s most important ally and defence partner.”

General Henault went on to cite Canada-U.S. free trade as the impetus for greater security co-operation, saying that “both countries’ economies rely on our free trade relationship. And while neither country wants to restrict trade, security considerations are increasingly driving concern for American decision makers following September 11th. In this environment, it is in Canada’s national interest to work collaboratively with the U.S. to strengthen continental security.”22

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