On the Level (June 08, 1992)

My thoughts this time have little to do with mining, except they do centre around former mines minister Marcel Masse, one of the most extravagant spenders in the Ottawa hierarchy. With his ilk in cabinet, it’s little wonder the feds are chalking up another huge deficit — at least $2 billion over forecast. This is restraint?

It was just as I was struggling with that greedy and thoroughly obnoxious federal income tax form that Masse, as defence minister, made the startling announcement he will spend $1 billion to buy 100 new military helicopters. What an utter waste of my money, I thought, and just at the time Toronto was launching a major food drive to feed its million welfare recipients. And panhandling is now more rampant than I can ever recall. (“I’d rather beg than steal,” read one of their signs that caught my eye.)

As defence minister, Masse, in my humble opinion, is simply the wrong man, in the wrong place and certainly at the wrong time. Completely ignoring any peace dividend from the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism, he is actually increasing defence spending while countries everywhere are cutting it back. And so they should. Indeed he seems to glorify in handing out lucrative military contracts that largely pander to Quebec. And I’d bet he had more than a little to do with Ottawa handing over $50 million to Montreal for its 350th anniversary party.

Bad enough that tenders weren’t even called for his latest goodie, it is for twice as many helicopters as the defence department said it needed only last fall. What in the world they need 100 new helicopters for at this time simply boggles the imagination. There might be more real need for a big helicopter fleet to serve the Lac de Gras diamond play in the Northwest Territories than for anything the military could dream up.

The $1-billion tab, of course, is only the cost to build them. Operating and maintenance costs are quite another matter. Contracting companies, hungry for business, charge at least $500 per hour for a helicopter.

Annual defence spending in this country, the largest discretionary item in the federal budget, has more than doubled to $12.5 billion in the past decade. Masse & Co. simply refuse to face the reality of a changing world and the necessity of reducing the staggering debt Brian Mulroney’s administration has ballooned.

Why not bite the bullet on some of the big-ticket military items now, like that redundant $9-billion frigate program designed for anti-submarine warfare? And a $1.1-billion low level air defence (LLAD) system, approved by Masse, is being built by Quebec contractors to protect our forces in Germany who are now coming home.

Also, there are many surplus military bases all around the country, many of which could and should be closed. The defence department is said to be the country’s biggest landlord, owning more than 33,000 buildings or almost half a building for each of its military personnel.

Making even less sense is his $7-billion scheme to build three new conventional submarines which, with six new patrol corvettes on order, will “demonstrate Canada’s seriousness in maintaining jurisdiction in its waters,” says Masse. What tommyrot. Threats of any submarine attack on this country have now all but vanished.

As to the federal debt itself, I feel the average Canadian doesn’t realize just how crippling $450 billion really is. The daily press gives unparalleled coverage to the serious debt woes of the wealthy Reichmann family and its Olympia & York Developments Ltd., the world’s biggest. At $14.3 billion owed to 100 frightened banks, it’s sending shock waves around the world. Yet Finance Minister Donald Mazankowski (read Canadian taxpayer) must cope with the equivalent of 30 Olympia and Yorks.

As long as we have irresponsible spendthrifts like Masse in the high seats of power, things are unlikely to change for the better.