Top soldier says military looking for 'clarity' on Ottawa's budget plans

Just over a month into the new fiscal year and two weeks after the federal budget, the Department of National Defence is struggling to reconcile the Liberal government's approach to military funding — giving with one hand while taking with the other.

Gen. Wayne Eyre, the country's top military commander, told the rank-and-file in a remote town hall event last week that he doesn't have answers to crucial questions about how internal budget cuts and funding reallocation square with promises of additional money in the recently released defence policy.

«We're being asked to suck and blow at the same time,» Eyre, the chief of the defence staff, told about 1,300 members of the Armed Forces who tuned in for the presentation. A video copy of his presentation was obtained by CBC News.

«We got some budget cuts last year,» he added, referring to the wave of spending reductions announced by Treasury Board President Anita Anand last fall. «We're getting new funding this year. Reconciling the two of those is a bit of a challenge. The finance staff is working on that right now.»

Eyre, who is expected to retire this year, told the audience that he's hoping to get a better idea of how the internal cuts announced in late 2023 will affect operations and maintenance.

«We have more funding in the future, as you know,» Eyre said in a response to a question from the audience. «This year on the operations and maintenance side, we are facing some challenges. And you talk about confusion — I don't have complete clarity yet either, as the finance staff continue to analyze the impacts of this year's federal budget.»

Eyre also hinted the federal government is weighing calls to eliminate some military capabilities that the different services — army, navy,