My Dream Defence Policy Update

 Since it is taking a lot longer for the Canadian Defence Policy Update to come out (I am using passive voice for a reason),* I figured I would present my ideal one.  This way, I can be properly disappointed when it does come out.  To be fair, I did pushback at media folks who were already doing the disappointment stories.  Who knows, maybe the DPU will provide what we need/want.  But to make that assessment, I thought providing an ideal baseline would useful.

Before I get started, first some caveats and other qualifiers.  I am not a defence economist, so I can't speak with any great certainty about dollar amounts.  I also can't assume that the government will have any clearly articulated grand strategy or foreign policy review.  My basic assumption going in is that as long as ships are not cancelled, none of this will move the needle in any direction domestically.  That is, the public wouldn't mind more spending on defence (the polls show they support it), but they won't give the incumbent party any votes for doing so either.  Yes, my dream defence policy update will require more spending, but what kind of dream would it be if I were too uptight about budgets?  A nightmare!

Ok, let's go:

• Personnel
• Specify the legislation that will be required to implement the key parts of the Arbour report (perhaps not every facet should be followed through--the Minister should have some judgment because Arbour is not perfect).
• Specify the legislation that will be needed to make a significant dent in the personnel crisis including making service in the CAF a fast pathway to citizenship.
• Allocate $$$ to address the crisis--better pay for all, retention bonuses for those who have excellent reviews, improving bases and providing better housing support, day care for kids, education/training/employment opportunities for trailing spouses.
• Develop a plan to require fewer moves over a military career including leveraging work from home for some jobs.
• Shift any jobs that don't require uniformed personnel over to DND (note: this is not sending these jobs to the private sector).  Anything that does not have physical requirement or a legal requirement to have a soldier/sailor/aviator should be civilianized including chief of personnel.
• Shift more jobs (if not entire bases) to be closer to major urban centers.
  
• Latvia/NATO
• Clarify that the Latvia mission is enduring, beyond a three year cruise, and detail how it will be sustained.  
• Clarify what the new money is going to and what additional funds will be required down the road. 
• Agree to be a framework nation at the MND-N level so that command rotates between us, Latvia, Danes.
  
• NORAD Modernization
• Be specific about what will be spent on what over the next 5-10 years including whatever new money there is.
• Indo-Pacific
• ¯\(°_o)/¯
  
• Domestic Emergency Operations
• Make clear it is not the last of many priorities, but co-equal with the highest, allocating money to improve the central HQ's coordination/lesson learning effort.
• Invest in domestic emergency-specific equipment--we don't need to have everything be useful for every possible mission.  
• Provide for leaves and other benefits similar to what the troops get after a foreign deployment for an extensive domestic emergency deployment.
  
• Procurement
• Set up a new procurement agency so that there is one shop, rather than multiple ones, responsible, with a new minister focused solely on this.  Take it out of DND and out of Public Works.
• More off the shelf type purchases like the P8, Javelins, Stingers, etc.
  
• Improve Civilian Control of the Military
• Include in culture change plans/conversations discussion of changing perceptions of civilian control of the CAF.
• Provide better training for new DND civil servants (at the entry level and for those who get moved over from other departments) so that they have a better understanding of the CAF and of military stuff.  One of the sources of tension is the attitude among military folks that the civilian folks don't know military stuff.
• Review and improve civ-mil components at all of the professional military education spots (including the systematic debunking of Huntington).
  
• Reverse the pattern of senior leadership at key L1s--for example, have a civilian chief of defense intelligence with a military advisor.  Sorry, Mike.
• Make specific commitments for improved transparency. 
  
• Future reviews: 
• Commit to four year cycle so that DND develops the muscles to be reviewing, assessing progress, being transparent about progress, consulting, etc.  This review has been much delayed for many reasons, creating frustration and problematic expectations.  Our allies do regular reviews for a reason.
• Academic engagement (i.e. super specific, self-centered stuff)
• Revise the length of MINDS Network Grants from 3 to 5 years and include a renewal process so that existing networks can use past performance to justify renewed funding.
  

Note: I am not dreaming of getting to two percent of GDP on defence.  However, I think this defence review should show how the military is spending more money for the things it needs to do, which will have the effect of getting Canada closer to 2%.  If we are a smidge below 2%, the griping at NATO will be less energetic.  But the focus needs to be on outputs and outcomes--that we can keep our promises to do various things (Indo-Pacific, Latvia, etc) at the level of quality we want--rather than inputs.

I will probably revise this as folks give me ideas of things I forgot.  But that is how reviews and updates are supposed to go--being resistant to moving the goal posts is problematic when winning on the battlefield requires adaptation.  

So, what did I miss?  What dreams should I include?

* A friend of mine and I were thinking of wagering on it, but she didn't like my over/under proposition, and I didn't like picking a specific week.