How dare they be so ungrateful! After all we did for them. All those hockey pucks and branded team jerseys we dished out. At least the Gulf States appreciate us coz’ we brought them Tim Horton’s coffee shops; fact is, they are learning from us. Its baby steps you know, but perceptibly, even the beheadings are less unruly public gatherings and are more dignified and civilized now. Yeah, sure we made a lot of dough off the gaddafi clan, but we’ve swept the chips off the ice and passed the Zamboni and its a fresh sheet; look at all those stories were running, the personal interest stories on human suffering in the service of freedom…..
—The Department of National Defence (DND) leads the rest of the Canadian government four-to-one on… purchases of hockey pucks and wristbands over the last five years. According to reports filed in the House of Commons, the federal government spent more than half a million big ones on promotional pucks, sports jerseys, plastic wristbands, and golf balls from 2007 to 2012. Of the nearly $530,000 spent on these items by all departments, $438,385 came from DND and the Canadian Forces.
A DND spokesman, Christian Tessier, said the Canadian Forces use the items to develop visibility for the work it does. Canadian forces-branded hockey pucks were, until last year, distributed to the general public at appreciation events that NHL hockey teams were hosting, reported Tessier. Jersey were mainly used for ‘Team Canada’ visits to soldiers in Afghanistan.—Read More:http://www.torontostandard.com/article/defence-department-spends-a-crapload-of-cash-on-hockey-pucks
Its a five star mission. The Canadian Forces acknowledges the benefit of the Michelin Guide. Libya. Afghanistan. These are no places for a Canadian boy. With their hockey and their donuts; if those Taliban want to sit in the sand for three days without food to take a shot at us, well let them; things are so comfy in the hotels and the base we may never leave….
(see link at end)…When the Royal Canadian Air Force deployed over Libyan skies, its pilots bedded down safe and sound in hotels in Sicily.
In fact, all Canadian troops there in support of the UN-backed mission in Libya were booked into hotels — an initially ad hoc solution that lasted for nearly nine months and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
CBC News has learned the Armed Forces likely spent about $11 million on hotel bills, which amounts to more than 10 per cent of the military’s $103 million total cost of the mission.
One spreadsheet shows $7.7 million for accommodations for a few hundred troops in two or three locations on the island of Sicily….
—The Hockey Night in Canada icon visited the country to celebrate the holidays with the troops he praises regularly on his Coach’s Corner segments.
Surrounded by a captive audience of soldiers, he held up various NHL team logos.
“Is this your favourite team,” he asked, displaying a Calgary Flames logo.
“What about that one?” he said, holding up the emblem for the Montreal Canadiens.
The biggest cheer came after that …Read More:http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2010/12/25/sp-cherry-afghanistan.html
NDP Defence critic Jack Harris says that’s a hefty price.
“It was a temporary mission, and as a result you are going to get a temporary cost,” he said. “Bu
r understanding was — and the Canadian public was led to believe — that they had all the co-operation of the government of Italy, and the use of their base to run operations out of.”
Cruise ship considered
Even though the military had secured access to an air base near Trapani, Sicily, it was unable to get military accommodations there.
Food to fortify the troops in the battle with the taliban. Maxime Bernier in 2007 distributing homegrown product, Joe Louis cakes to the Canadian Forces in Khandahar. Read More:http://www.thestar.com/news/article/264532–afghanistan-a-mission-of-baby-steps
It spent considerable effort looking at whether and where it could build a temporary base for Canadian troops. It also solicited cruise ship owners who might be prepared to lease a vessel to act as a floating camp.
Military planning documents obtained by CBC News show the military knew that option would be expensive especially if the mission carried on for more than just a couple of months, as it did.
But officials worried about the optics of the air force waging a war over Libya while bedding down on a cruise ship off Sicily.
A ship might make sense, one official wrote, “but we need to survive the Globe and Mail test.”
In the end, the military decided not to rent a ship or build a camp, but to rent hotel rooms.
In May, the military said it had spent more than $30 million on food, transportation and accommodations for the mission.
On Wednesday, the military said it was unable to confirm the CBC’s figures. Spokesman Daniel Blouin said the military was still working to break down the figures. Read More:http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/09/19/libya-mission-costs-hotel.html
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