Navy Ties Up Its Fleet

Senator Colin Kenny wonders why Canada has a navy if there's no money for the ships to patrol the coast. "It's not a good thing to run out of money," said Kenny, chair of the Senate's security and defence committee. "I think it's because of the extra costs with oil and the demands of Afghanistan." The Defence Department will spend almost $1.5 billion on the mission in Afghanistan this fiscal year. But at the same time, the money the navy has to send ships to sea has been cut by about 10 per cent. "It's obvious they don't have money for fuel or personnel," said Nova Scotia MP Peter Stoffer. Stoffer called it "very disappointing" that the navy ships are tied up, and said Canadians should be alarmed. "Not having these ships patrol leaves a big hole in our security," he said. "You can have illegal immigrants, drug traffickers, people who want to do us harm or harm our neighbours. "The Americans have consistently accused Canada of having leaky security measures, and this will just prove to them that we are not even patrolling our own coasts for security measures." Sources tell CBC News that the navy's financial woes will continue until the end of March, and that all patrols will be cancelled until then. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2007/01/17/navy-tieup.html

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