General

Defending the homeland

Olympics, G8 summit may push army to the breaking point

At National Defence, it’s become known as Personnel Crunch 2010, but don’t let the bureaucratic understatement belie the seriousness of the situation facing the Canadian Forces over the next 12 months. According the Toronto Star, between now and next July, “more than 32,000 military personnel—about half the entire Canadian Forces—will be in training or set to deploy on missions to Kandahar, the Vancouver Olympics and next summer’s G8 meeting in Huntsville. This may make it “impossible to carry on current operations and still respond to the weekly requests for Canadian soldiers from the Americans, NATO and the United Nations,” according to Defence officials. As a result, Canada could be forced to pull soldiers from “smaller peacekeeping operations” such as those currently underway in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans, as well as turn over some “signature work” in Afghanistan to “civilian contractors or retired soldiers.”

Toronto Star

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