NDP digs up military's long-range Afghanistan planning

The NDP defence critic Dawn Black (left) has some crack researchers in her office who have learned,  through an Access to Information request, that Canada’s generals have been making plans for troops in Afghanistan through to 2011. Of course, the government has only approved keeping the troops there until 2009. The government has not yet made its plans known so far as keeping Canadian troops in Afghanistan beyond 2009.

The NDP says these are the main points of the documents obtained by Black:

• It lays out troop and command rotation for Joint Task Force (JTF) Afghanistan.
• It covers the period August 2007 until May 2011.
• Our three largest regiments, the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), Petawawa-based Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and the Royal 22nd Regiment (R22R or Van Doos) based in Val Cartier, Quebec will all be rotated TWO more times before this plan ends.
• According to this document the PPCLI will be sent in May, 2008 and November 2009—on top of the two they have already served in Southern Afghanistan.
• RCR, who just finished a rotation, will deploy again in August 2008 and February 2010
• R22R, who just began its first rotation, will deploy again in February 2009 and August 2010.

Here’s the exchange on this subject from today’s Question Period between Black and Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor (right):

Ms. Dawn Black (New Westminster—Coquitlam, NDP) :
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence has refused the NDP request to set a time for debate and a vote on whether or not to extend the mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009. Documents I have obtained through access to information show that the Chief of the Defence Staff is already way ahead of the government. The CDS has detailed plans going until 2011 for deployments.

Will the minister tell the members of the Canadian Forces and their families what General Hillier has planned for them?

*   *   *

Hon. Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence, CPC) :
Mr. Speaker, I have answered this question a number of times. The member is confusing the military internal plan which is based upon the Afghanistan compact and government direction. If she reads the plan in detail, she will notice that the military acknowledge that they are committed to the end of February 2009, however, they plan beyond those dates because the Afghan compact goes until 2011.

*   *   *

Ms. Dawn Black (New Westminster—Coquitlam, NDP) :
Mr. Speaker, the government needs to come clean on this. Will the Royal Canadian Regiment be returned in February 2010? Will the PPCLI be returning in August 2009 for their third or fourth rotation? And will the Van Doos return for their third rotation in August 2010 as General Hillier's planning documents indicate?

It is hard to see where civilian oversight is taking place at DND. How can the military plan rotations that Parliament has not approved?

*   *   *

Hon. Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence, CPC) :
Mr. Speaker, the government has said that we are committed to the end of February 2009. No further decision has been made. The government, when it finds it appropriate, will make the decision on what happens if and when the events occur after 2009.

And here’s an exchange in the foyer of the House of Commons between some reporterss and Black:

Reporter: What do you make of these documents and what do you think of the government’s responses that this is just prudent planning?

Black: Well, if that was the case, it if was just prudent planning, that would be one thing. However, you know, this is a government that has — a country that signed a commitment to the Kyoto agreements that run until 2015 and there’s no planning going on there. The point is that in Parliament we’ve only had 48 hours of debate about this mission in Afghanistan. If we are extending it or if there are plans to consider extending it, that debate should happen within the House of Commons in a substantive way so that Canadians and military families and the Canadian Forces themselves understand what’s being talked about and what the potential is.

Reporter: And do you think government has signed us on for two more years?

Black: I think that the plans are in place. I think that what we need to see is civilian oversight. It is a very serious issue that deserves to have the highest level of debate in Canada and you know when the government agreed to a further two years till 2009 there was a cursory kind of debate around the question — 48 hours, a very quick probe without any real in-depth discussion and I think that if the government is planning on going till 2011 that they should be consulting with Canadians and with Parliament on that.

Reporter: What do you make of the minister’s answers to your questions?

Black: I think in fairness we have to agree that the Conservatives at least had a short debate, 48 hours, before they extended to 2009. If the plans are afoot to extend it till 2011 that deserves to have a very thorough, high level informed debate within Parliament before a decision is made.

O’Connor, as he does almost every day, left the Commons via a members-only exit and, as a result, avoided reporters who may have wished to ask him about this.