OTTAWA — Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says "what's done is done" when it comes to the former Conservative government's deep cuts to defence spending in 2012.
Sajjan was reacting to a fresh batch of numbers detailing spending cuts from four years ago, released today by the Liberal government in response to a long-standing and disputed request by the parliamentary budget office.
The figures show $1.19 billion in defence spending was cut in 2012, the first wave in a series of reductions that eventually saw over $2.1 billion per year carved out of the military's funding envelope.
The defence numbers aren't entirely new: defence analysts Dave Perry and George Petrolekas crunched the numbers a few years ago using open-sourced budget data and came up with roughly the same figures.
What the PBO numbers do reveal is where those cuts were directed, including a $40 million per year reduction in the number of reservists — or part-time soldiers — and $305 million annually to restrain growth in the military.
Since the cuts, the bottom has effectively fallen out of the reserves with a 19 per cent drop in the size of the force — something defence experts attribute to a lack of money for training or other activities.
Sajjan, a reserve force lieutenant-colonel, says he witnessed the effects of the cuts.
"The previous cuts, which I'm aware of and felt myself, did have an impact, but what's done is done," Sajjan said.
"I'm the minister of defence now and our government is looking at making sure that the planned increases are there. The military, what it needs to move forward is stable, predictable funding, and that's what I'm working towards and make sure it's going to happen."
In their last budget, the Conservative government promised to begin ramping up defence spending starting in 2017, a commitment the Liberals have said they plan to keep.
