Whatever happened to those guys, anyway?
Whatever happened to those guys, anyway?
From the Globe and Mail story on the full cost of the Afghanistan mission (I won’t spoil the surprise, but here’s a hint – it’s nowhere near what Canadians were told!):
Mr. Page’s chief conclusion is that parliamentarians who vote on spending for the Afghanistan mission cannot possibly have a clear idea of what it is being spent on what operations are really costing.
And his officials said that government departments did not provide information the Parliamentary Budget Office requested to make its work more precise — like the actual number of troops on the ground in Afghanistan, and what equipment is there.
“Although Canada is in the seventh year of the Afghanistan mission, Parliament and Canadians have not been provided with accurate and comprehensive departmental cost estimates,” Mr. Page said.
The figures the Department of National Defence has reported for its actual extra spending for the Afghanistan mission do not match those it has in its internal books, the report found. The department’s reports to parliament are two years, and more than $2-billion, behind its internal books, and includes different amounts for what it actually spent on its operations in the field.
Military missions consistently exceed the planned cost reported by the government, the report found.
Listening to the Prime Minister taking questions on the full cost during his daily media event, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard him use the word “bipartisan” with such frequency and fervour.