The mission in Afghanistan could reach a total cost of $18.1 billion or $1,500 per Canadian household by 2011, a government report estimates. Canada has spent $7.7 billion to $10.5 billion on costs related to its Afghan mission in the past six years, and may spend $13.9 billion to $18.1 billion by the end of the 2010-11 budget year, according to The Fiscal Impact of the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan tabled by parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page on Thursday. However, a lack of government consistency and transparency has made the figures difficult to estimate, and they likely understate the full costs of the mission, the report says.
The mission began in 2002, and Canada currently has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar province. So far, 98 Canadians, including one diplomat, have died in the conflict. The release of the report was agreed upon by all leaders of Canada's major political parties in September, despite concerns that the results could sway the outcome of the Oct. 14 election.Prime Minister Stephen Harper had previously estimated that the total cost so far would be less than $8 billion.
The figures released Thursday are incremental costs — that is, they do not include costs such as salaries that would be incurred by Canada's military anyway, even if it were not in Afghanistan. The cost of military operations, veterans benefits and foreign aid related to the mission were all part of the estimate. However, Page said certain costs weren't included due to the difficulty of estimating them reliably, and this suggests the figures "may likely understate the costs" of the mission. Such additional costs include danger pay and the need to replace equipment sooner if it is deployed in war rather than peacetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment