Canada's seven billion dollar war: The cost of Canadian forces operations in Afghanistan

International Journal

Volumn 63, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 703-725

  Perry, David ^a  

^a CARLETON UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 57249115869     PISSN: 00207020     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002070200806300317     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. David Bercuson, Aaron P. Plamondon, and Ray Szeto, "An opaque window," Calgary, CDFAI, May 2006, iii.
2. A senate report quotes a figure of $30 million a month for operations, well short of official estimates. The Manley panel simply listed the full DND costs of operations between FY 2000-01 and 2006-07. See "Canadian troops in Afghanistan: Taking a hard look at a hard mission," Ottawa, standing senate committee on national security and defence, 2007;
3. John Manley, "Final report," Ottawa, independent panel of Canada's future role in Afghanistan, 2008;
4. and "Support for overseas deployments: National defence," in "Report of the auditor general of Canada to the house of commons," Ottawa, May 2008.
5. Bill Robinson, "Boots on the ground: Canadian military operations in Afghanistan and UN peacekeeping missions," Ottawa, Polaris Institute, 2006;
6. and Steven Staples and Bill Robinson, "More than the Cold War: Canada's military spending 2007-2008" Ottawa, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2007.
7. La Presse misinterpreted data about "Incremental DND costs" to represent cost overruns and the story ran uncorrected prior to the 13 March 2008 vote extending the mission. See André Duchesne, "Le budget de Ia mission défoncé d'un milliard," La Presse, 11 March 2006; and The Canadian Press, "Afghan mission $1B over budget," www.thestar.com, 12 March 2008.
8. Hansard, no. 006, 39th parliament, Ottawa, 10 April 2006.
9. Ibid.
10. Hansard, no. 066, 39th parliament, Ottawa, 13 March 2008.
11. See "Estimates for the government of Canada and other supporting documents," Treasury Board of Canada, 23 February 2006, www.tbs-sct.gc.ca, 15.
12. For a full overview of the government of Canada's financial cycle, see "Financial procedures," in "Compendium: House of commons procedures online," www.parl.gc.ca, 15 September 2007;
13. and "The reporting cycle," in "Tools and resources for parliamentarians," Treasury Board of Canada, 20 September 2006, www.tbs-sct.gc.ca.
14. The motion reads, "this extension of Canada's military presence in Afghanistan is approved...on the condition that: ...(c) the Government of Canada notify NATO that Canada will end its presence in Kandahar as of July 2011, and, as of that date, the redeployment of Canadian Forces out of Kandahar and their replacement by Afghan forces start as soon as possible, so that it will have been completed by December 2011..."; "Revised Conservative motion on Afghanistan," CBC News In Depth: Afghanistan, 14 March 2008, www.cbc.ca.
15. Ross Fetterly, "The Canadian peacekeeping cost estimate process," in Resource Management, first quarter (2005): 31. As discussed below, it appears that some equipment has already been returned to Canada, and may well have incurred repair and overhaul costs. However, no costs for repair and overhaul have been made public to date for operations in Kandahar. Thus, a simplified assumption is made that repair and overhaul costs will be charged in full at the mission's end.
16. DND calculates the cost of repair and overhaul using analyses of equipment operating costs and detailed assessments of usage in theatre. Such calculations are beyond the scope of this paper. A rough calculation is instead made as a percentage of total incremental costs. The RPP 2004-05 included $60 million for the "Provision of repair and overhaul of equipment after Operation Athena." The same document estimated the incremental cost of Operation Athena for FYs 2003-04 and 2004-05 to be $820 million, excluding the amount for repair and overhaul. The repair and overhaul figure was therefore 7.3 percent of the estimated incremental cost.
17. Ross Fetterly, "The cost of peacekeeping to the defence budget from 1989-99 to 2002-03," Toronto, Canadian Forces College, 28 April 2004. The author updated Fetterly's breakdown to incorporate CF transformation.
18. Ross Fetterly, "The cost of peacekeeping: Canada," The Economics of Peace and Security Journal 1, no. 2 (2006): 48.
19. "Budget info by year," Department of Finance Canada, 24 August 2007, www.fin.gc.ca; "Supplementary estimates (a) 2001/2002 - supplementary estimates (b) 2007/2008," Treasury Board of Canada, 2002-07. Depending upon the sequence of the federal budget and supply processes, budget allocations are sometimes provided supply through the supplementary estimates. In the years where this was the case, the funding supplied via the supplementary estimates alone is counted.
20. See Brian MacDonald, "Waiting for defence budget 2008," in "CDA commentary 1-2008"; "Budget 2007" in "CDA commentary 5-2007"; "Waiting for budget 2007," in "CDA commentary 4-2007"; and "Budget 2006" in "CDA commentary 5-2006," Ottawa, Conference of Defence Associations, www.cda-cdai.ca.
21. "Reports on plans and priorities 2008-2009," Department of National Defence, 2008, 29-30.
22. David Pugliese, "Air force needs $540 million to keep flying," Ottawa Citizen, 17 April 2008. Murray Brewster, "DND told to keep war costs down in coming budget year," Canoe Network, CNEWS, 2 December 2007.
23. Janice Gross-Stein and Eugene Lang, The Unexpected War (Toronto: Viking Canada, 2007), 195.
24. Amy Belasco, "The cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and other global war on terror operations since 9/11," congressional research service, Washington, DC, 2008, 32.
25. Lawrence J. Korb, Loren B. Thompson, and Caroline P. Wadhams, "Army equipment after Iraq," Center for American Progress and Lexington Institute, April 2006;
26. and Lawrence J. Korb, Max A. Bergmann, and Loren B. Thompson, "Marine Corps equipment after Iraq," Center for American Progress and Lexington Institute, August 2006;
27. Michal Hagee, "Statement of General Michael W. Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, United Stated Marine corps, before the house armed services committee," Washington, house of representatives house armed services committee, 27 June 2006, www.armedservices.house.gov.
28. Belasco, "The cost of Iraq."
29. Graeme Smith, "All LAV IIIs to be replaced within the year," Globe and Mail, 3 April 2007. A1.
30. David Pugliese, "Army pushed to the 'breaking point': Leslie," The Ottawa Citizen, 19 April 2008.
31. Stephen Priestley, "Canadian forces vehicular casualties in southern Afghanistan by vehicle type," Canadian American Strategic Review, 22 August 2007, www.sfu.ca..
32. "Armoured personnel carrier replacement," in Department of National Defence backgrounder BG-97.004, 9 January 1997, www.forces.gc.ca.
33. MacDonald, "Waiting for budget 2007."
34. CBC, "In the line of duty: Canada's casualties," In Depth: Afghanistan, 17 March 2008, www.cbc.ca; and "Evidence," standing committee on national defence, 7 February 2008.
35. "Evidence," house of commons standing committee on national defence, 7 February 2008.
36. "Chapter 6: A safer Canada: Building a stronger Canada in a modern world," in "Budget plan 2007," Department of Finance Canada, 2007, 255.
37. "2004-2005 report on plans and priorities," Veterans Affairs Canada, 2004, 7.
38. "2008-2009 report on plans and priorities," Veterans Affairs Canada, 2008, 9.
39. Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar War (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).
40. David Pugliese, "Mission has created an 'organizational perfect storm'," Ottawa Citizen, 4 September 2007.
41. "Proceedings of standing senate committee on national security and defence," 26 February 2007.
42. "Army equipment for operation Archer," Department of National Defence backgrounder BG-05.036, 29 November 2005, www.forces.gc.ca.
43. "Table 10: Status report on major crown projects," in "Reports on plans and priorities 2007/2008," Department of National Defence, 2007, 23.
44. "Protection the top priority with tank acquisition," Department of National Defence news release, 12 April 2007, www.forces.gc.ca;
45. J im Wolf, "Update 1-US eyes potential $375 mln helicopter sale to Canada," Market News Reuters, 23 April 2008, www.reuters.com.
46. David Pugliese, "Afghan War leaves forces unable to buy new rescue planes," Ottawa Citizen, 26 April 2007.
47. For a description of CF operations, past and present, see DND, "Operations," in "National defence and the Canadian forces," 25 February 2008, www.forces.gc.ca.