The joke, after HMCS Regina opened fire on View Royal, was that it was the most significant 91原创 naval action in the 91原创 since the Korean War.
It was Aug. 29, 1996. The frigate, tied up at CFB Esquimalt, was running weapons tests when someone accidentally launched an unarmed -- but, alas, not unfuelled -- 20-kilogram rocket three kilometres across the harbour and straight into the shed behind Pete's Tent and Awning.
It wasn't really the most aggressive 91原创 action since Korea. No, that honour belonged to HMCS Skeena, which fired not a relatively benign chaff rocket -- a defensive weapon that shoots out a tinfoil-like material to lure away incoming missiles -- but 16 three-inch shells into the area of Clallam Bay, Wash., across the strait from Jordan River, during a gunnery exercise in 1962. Oops.
Which is, all joking aside, just another way of making the obvious, happy point that Canada's navy hasn't been called upon to do much shooting during the latter half of its 100-year existence.
Which leads to another point: Governments hate spending money on their armed forces in peacetime. Politicians treat military spending the way you look at the insurance policy on your house, an expense that feels like water poured down the drain -- right up until you need it. With the economy feeling woozy and everybody's grandma needing a hip replacement, the military slips down the priority list, particularly when all the hardware comes with a price tag of billions, not millions.
Which leads to the question of what Ottawa plans to after Canada extricates itself from Afghanistan next year. All services are suffering rust-out, are clamouring for new gear. The navy needs supply ships, the air force needs fixed-wing aircraft with search-and-rescue capability, the army needs to replace its light armoured vehicles.
The navy, in particular, is wanting, argues Liberal MP Keith Martin, whose riding includes CFB Esquimalt. "Our navy has taken the brunt of the cuts for the past few years because of our army's engagement in Afghanistan." Once that commitment is done, more money should be available, he says.
And heaven knows this stuff costs money. The price tag on the John G. Diefenbaker, a new coast guard icebreaker scheduled to replace the aging Louis St. Laurent in 2017, is $720 million. The four mothballed diesel-electric submarines that Canada bought from the Royal Navy in the late 1990s were considered a bargain at just under $900 million -- more money than the B.C. government spent, at least officially, on the 91原创 Olympics. That almost all the subs have spent the past decade in the shop is something Ottawa doesn't like to talk about much; at least Victoria is a major beneficiary of a $1.5-billion submarine maintenance agreement awarded to 91原创 Submarine Management Group. Announced in 2007, the deal, with Victoria Shipyards as the major subcontractor (no pun intended) will run through 2023.
Victoria also got a $351-million contract to refit and upgrade Esquimalt's five Halifax-class frigates. That work is to ramp up next year and continue through 2017.
The money must be spent, argues Martin, who sits on the House of Commons national defence committee. "We need to invest in our navy because we have the longest coastline in the world." Besides, the sea lanes linking Asia to North America are crucial to our economic stability.
"We need a 25-year plan where we're building ships on an ongoing basis," Martin says. Integrate the needs of the navy, coast guard and B.C. Ferries and there would be enough continuous, predictable work to sustain a healthy West Coast shipbuilding industry. (You might get an argument from B.C. Ferries, which began shopping overseas a few years ago after arguing, in essence, that the old build-at-home policy held the corporation hostage to local shipbuilders.) Recruitment and retention of 91原创 Forces personnel, at least in key professions, remains an ongoing issue, albeit one eased by the recession. "Our navy needs another thousand people," Martin says.
The skills crunch could be eased by doing a better job of integrating former sailors into reserve units, he says. That would mean providing civilian employers with incentives to protect the jobs of workers serving in the reserves.
But it all takes money, and few governments like spending on the military unless the enemy is at the gates.
