本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Afghan war costs could be thorny election issue
Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, September 15, 2008

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Afghanistan War

Elections and Voting

Kevin Page

Paul Dewar

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OTTAWA -- Canada's new parliamentary budget officer says federal politicians, including those in the opposition, should be told the overall cost of the six-year war in Afghanistan.

In an interview with Global National, Kevin Page says he is nearing the end of a special probe that tallies Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan. However, he said that he believes all-party consent is required to allow him to release the report during a federal election campaign.

Page, who was appointed in March, had hoped to release a preliminary estimate on the cost of keeping Canada's 2,500 troops in Afghanistan this month, when the House of Commons was due to reconvene.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to call a federal election has effectively delayed the release of that figure.

"Certainly for parliamentarians and opposition, they have an important oversight role. They should know what those costs are ... It would be important to get the kind of transparency we need going forward," Page told Global News.

Releasing that figure now, during a federal election campaign, could be a thorny issue.

The mission in Afghanistan has had a low profile during the first nine days of the federal campaign, but if the cost of the war were revealed, it could cause headaches for the governing Conservatives, as well as the opposition Liberals, who originally committed Canadian troops to Kandahar while they were in power in 2005.

"At minimum, it would take an all-party agreement, and probably we'd be setting a precedent," said Page, who could be accused of interfering in the election if he were to release his figures now.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, whose party has called for an immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, has asked Page to release his cost estimates.

Dewar has argued it is wrong that the full cost of the war was not discussed in Parliament and for it not to be part of the election debate.

"It's absolutely fundamental that we have a costing of how much the war has cost us to date and until 2011," Dewar has said. "It's critical for Canadians who are about to decide on their political choices."

Dewar was not available for further comment because of the death Monday of his mother, Marion, a former Ottawa mayor and longtime New Democrat.

Previous estimates of the cost of the mission, based on the federal government's own spending estimates, have pegged the cost of the war at about $7-billion to $8-billion.

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