DND unable to spend billions in what critics say is stealth deficit cutting

OTTAWA – New figures from the parliamentary budget office show National Defence hasn’t spent billions of dollars set aside for it during the last budget year in a continuing trend that’s being described as deficit slashing by stealth.

The data on quarterly expenditures in the federal government show the department ended the last fiscal year in March by spending $2.3 billion less than what was allocated by Parliament.

That is more than 10 per cent of the annual defence appropriation, which also happens to be the single biggest discretionary item in the federal budget.

The figures show a total of $9.6 billion has gone unspent in defence since the 2006-07 budget year — a trend defence officials blame on late equipment projects and an inefficient bureaucracy.

Some of the unspent funds, mostly capital for equipment, can be moved to other budgets in an exercise known as re-profiling, but analysts and critics say the continuing pattern makes them wonder if the aim is deliberate.

Dave Perry, of Carleton University and the Conference of Defence Associations, says if it is simply a matter of process, a government committed to ending inefficiency would have solved the problem.