Harper Government refuses troops for flood, because

Harper Government refuses troops for flood, because …

“… the services you are requesting, if they were authorized, would place the Canadian Forces in competition with the private sector at the local and provincial level…”

theglobeandmail.com/news/nat … le2033562/

Is there a Harper supporter on HTMF that can justify this somehow? Thanks.

[quote=“zerocool”]Harper Government refuses troops for flood, because …

“… the services you are requesting, if they were authorized, would place the Canadian Forces in competition with the private sector at the local and provincial level…”

theglobeandmail.com/news/nat … le2033562/

Is there a Harper supporter on HTMF that can justify this somehow? Thanks.[/quote]

Dumb decision, one of the main purposes of the Canadian Forces has always been to provide aid to civil power, this would be a clear cut case of that basic purpose of the Forces.

When a community asks for assistance, assistance should arrive, simple and clear, not sure what the hell they were thinking on this one.

So when there’s a big snowfall in Toronto and they send the army in, that doesn’t compete with private snow removal services?

I am a long way from a Harper supporter and I have no understanding of what constitutes disaster relief.

Having said that, what I really like about online papers and why I now rarely buy newspapers is the comments that follow the story. Some stories will get over 1000 responses and there will always be varying opinions. So I gave a quick glance to the comment section (over 100) of your link.

At first the “competition with the private sector” seems ridiculous so I will not comment on that. However, the Harper supporters (who were in the minority) are saying that the army was being asked to clean up rather than deal with the actual emergency. One former military guy said he would have been angry if the army was used for non-emergency work. Other people were posting about whose responsibility is it to pay for clean up. Is it the local taxpayer, the provincial taxpayer or the federal taxpayer?

I don’t feel knowledgeable to have an actual opinion one way or another but I would encourage everybody to read the comments after those stories. I trust the people who comment (both for and against) more than I do the reporter to give the full range of ideas that a story might bring.