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.

"I had to sort of keep on pushing my issue forward, about the importance and the need to invest in defence," Blair told the audience at Canadian Global Affairs Institute symposium.

One of the areas hit hardest back then was the internal budget category known as national procurement funding — the cash that covers equipment maintenance, repair and overhaul, and in-service support.

The cuts between 2012 and 2014 led the army to park a large number of its vehicles, the air force to reduce flying hours by a quarter and the navy to tie up some of its warships.

Anecdotally, some in the army trace the current shortage of spare parts — which today is severely limiting the use of Leopard 2 tanks — back to the budget restraint of a decade ago.