NL-Outsidethebox [confederation]

It is always interesting when people from any province or region argue that they are hard done by because another province or region appears to receive more funding from a government department. The argument that a province or territory should receive a percentage of any federal department’s budget based upon percentage of population is ludicrous. It is not unusual for people from Newfoundland and Labrador to complain that they do not receive their fair share of the Department of National Defence’s budget. They argue that even though NL accounts for only 1.6 percent of Canada’s population, Newfoundlanders make up almost 10 percent of the Canadian Forces so DND should have more permanent infrastructure in NL. According to Statistics Canada, 1.6 percent of the total number of CF personnel is employed in NL. It is true that only a total of 1.1 percent of the CF payroll is paid out on NL soil, however, with Newfoundlanders making up almost 10 percent of the CF, overall they account for about 10 percent of total CF salaries – not bad for a province that accounts for a very small fraction of the nation’s population. Should not the people of Quebec be even more upset than the people of NL, after all, Quebec has 23.5 percent of Canada’s population, yet receives only 16.9 percent of the CF payroll total.

Using the logic that federal spending should be based upon provincial percentage of national population, the people of Saskatchewan should demand 3.1 percent of the Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s budget, while Newfoundlanders should receive only 1.6 percent. Likewise, Human Resources Development Canada should spend only 1.6 percent of its budget in NL and increase its spending in Alberta to 10.1 percent.

Another comparison that is completely nonsensical is that between British Columbia and NL with respect to allocation of military resources. NL Expatriate seems to believe that NL should possess the same level of military infrastructure as does BC. Canada is bordered on the West Coast by the Pacific Ocean and on the East Coast by the Atlantic. Canada’s entire Pacific coastline is in BC; Canada’s Atlantic coastline is shared by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, NL, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec. BC has one air base and one naval base (NL-Expatriate is mistaken, there is not a base in Nanaimo). Not including Quebec, there are four air bases, one army base and one naval base in the Atlantic region. Even though BC accounts for 13.2 percent of Canada’s population, only 9.1 percent of CF personnel are based there; NB, NS, NL, and PEI account for only 7.2 percent of the nation’s population, yet 20.4 percent of CF personnel are located within these four provinces.

To correct any misconceptions regarding the number of military personnel located in NL, it should be noted that there are 1,375 regular and reserve members located within the province. As noted previously, this number is 1.6 percent of the total number of regular and reserve force members a percentage that matches NL’s percentage of Canada’s population. These 1375 CF members are spread primarily between the regular force bases in Goose Bay and Gander and the permanent reserve base in St Johns. Additionally, there are 743 Canadian Rangers and 266 Junior Canadian Rangers employed in Labrador. There are also 74 Air, Army and Sea Cadet units in NL.
 

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