The Defence Budget [superthread]

[The Bread Guy]

How much could be saved by DND not paying i.e. GST on purchases and that amount used to increase spending?

Don't government buyers get GST back?  I thought they did ...

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

The government gets the GST back, Milnews. It gets 100% of it back when it collects the GST from all the suppliers and their own suppliers down the line. But each separate department doesn't get it's share back in proportion of how much it paid but only as part of its budget as allocated from the consolidated revenues.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Every few years they talk about it, although the wholesale change and compromises that's going on right now nothing would surprise me. Nothing in the RCN is sacred anymore, well perhaps soup at stand easy ;D

Woah! Woah! Woah! Is somebody talking about cancelling the stand easy soup !!!!! Do they want the hulls smashed?? Do they want a fleet wide mutiny on their hands??

This would mean war :threat:

 

[dimsum]

Woah! Woah! Woah! Is somebody talking about cancelling the stand easy soup !!!!! Do they want the hulls smashed?? Do they want a fleet wide mutiny on their hands??

This would mean war :threat:

I thought that was the outcome if they stopped Sliders.    >

 

[Halifax Tar]

Woah! Woah! Woah! Is somebody talking about cancelling the stand easy soup !!!!! Do they want the hulls smashed?? Do they want a fleet wide mutiny on their hands??

This would mean war :threat:

On a serious note, the slow erosions of beards, beer and now maybe soup/lunch is probably not what the RCN needs to keep folks in uniform...

This on top of sea time that keep climbing while hulls and people shrink is/could really hurt the Navy.

 

[Stoker]

On a serious note, the slow erosions of beards, beer and now maybe soup/lunch is probably not what the RCN needs to keep folks in uniform...

This on top of sea time that keep climbing while hulls and people shrink is/could really hurt the Navy.

Wait until the PLD goes down, Spec 2 goes away and sea pay for when your only at sea..... at least they fixed the parking somewhat

 

[Halifax Tar]

Wait until the PLD goes down, Spec 2 goes away and sea pay for when your only at sea..... at least they fixed the parking somewhat

Please tell me that's just a dirty communist rumor ?

 

[trooper142]

Wait until the PLD goes down, Spec 2 goes away and sea pay for when your only at sea..... at least they fixed the parking somewhat

Fixed parking? Really?  The only base in the country to get it's members to pay to come to work! Hiding behind some illusion that they have to be based on fair market value!

Last I checked, and I am willing to be corrected, Willow/Windsor Park is now 69$ a month, tax deductible.  Can someone enlighten me as to where this is fair market; where near those two properties do people pay for parking to go to work?

The solution would be to abandon parking rates completely as yet another failed experiment.

 

[Stoker]

Please tell me that's just a dirty communist rumor ?

I know for a fact PLD is being reviewed, so at some point the new rates are coming out, it wouldn't surprise me that it would drop in halifax. All spec pay is being reviewed so I could certainly see spec 2 going away with the changes. Sea pay is indeed being reviewed, everything and anything is being looked at.

 

[Stoker]

Fixed parking? Really?  The only base in the country to get it's members to pay to come to work! Hiding behind some illusion that they have to be based on fair market value!

Last I checked, and I am willing to be corrected, Willow/Windsor Park is now 69$ a month, tax deductible.  Can someone enlighten me as to where this is fair market; where near those two properties do people pay for parking to go to work?

The solution would be to abandon parking rates completely as yet another failed experiment.

Fixed parking as its now a taxable benefit. Doesn't really matter when they also raised the rates from $45 to $75 :facepalm:

 

[Halifax Tar]

I know for a fact PLD is being reviewed, so at some point the new rates are coming out, it wouldn't surprise me that it would drop in halifax. All spec pay is being reviewed so I could certainly see spec 2 going away with the changes. Sea pay is indeed being reviewed, everything and anything is being looked at.

Parking... GD parking... I cant for the life of me fathom how they can continue that program.  Why isn't Peter Stoffer or some other MP or retired MP making this an issue ? 

Sounds to like FRP by other means when you start to kill things with a million little cuts like this

 

[trooper142]

Fixed parking as its now a taxable benefit. Doesn't really matter when they also raised the rates from $45 to $75 :facepalm:

The way to fix the parking system is to get rid of it entirely.  It's absurd that members have to pay to park on government property to go to work.

Next they are gonna demand that you pay for the gas you use while driving a CFR 

 

[Eye In The Sky]

It's absurd that members have to pay to park on government property to go to work.

IIRC though, this is a CRA or TB policy, not a DND/CAF one.  I know, its still the GoC and I agree with you, my tax dollars pay for all government spending.  IMO, having to pay to park on a CFB parking lot would be like the company that sold me my last house charging me to park on my driveway that I already paid for.

Tough times are coming, they have been since...Oct 2015?  Already starting to see it with things like basic operational clothing.  It really fuckin irks me that I can't get my operational dress exchanged but I can get the new wings sewn on my DEUs.  :facepalm:

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, DEU fixins' and the like aren't necessarily the priority.  Case in point.

As funding and ACTUAL support for the CAF drops from the Liberals, I suspect you'll see an equal lowering of mbr's GAFF drop.  Loyalty is a two way street, isn't it?

 

[Stoker]

IIRC though, this is a CRA or TB policy, not a DND/CAF one.  I know, its still the GoC and I agree with you, my tax dollars pay for all government spending.

IMO, having to pay to park on a CFB parking lot would be like the company that sold me my last house charging me to park on my driveway that I already paid for.

Tough times are coming, they have been since...Oct 2015?  Already starting to see it with things like basic operational clothing.  It really ****** irks me that I can't get my operational dress exchanged but I can get the new wings sewn on my DEUs.

As funding and ACTUAL support for the CAF drops from the Liberals, I suspect you'll see an equal lowering of mbr's GAFF drop.  Loyalty is a two way street, isn't it?

Parking been a disaster since the new pay policy started, half the parking machines do not work something like $200,000 grand for that. They gave out too many passes, and people who had passes couldn't get spots, so they clawed back the passes.They couldn't figure out how to collect the funds for parking from some members. They backed off on the pay for hospital parking and MFRC pay parking after an outcry. The whole study for pay parking was shown to be flawed at the get go and left out lots around the base that would have affected fair market value. At Christmas with everyone on leave and the base deserted Commissionaires were happily giving tickets to base shift workers who had the gall to park close to their work. They should of made it scramble parking or a taxable benefit from the get go.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I remember clearing into Halifax in '07 and part of my inclearance was to read the Parking Regs (MARLANTORD?).  I thought, ok no biggie.  Then I found them...29 frickin page document.  For parking!!  :

IIRC the most expensive parking in Hfx is down at RA Park, as it is prime real estate in the downtown sector.  $110+ a month rings a bell.

 

[dapaterson]

Or sailors can get over themselves, and like millions of other Canadians, pay for parking at or around their workplace.

Or do those lots magically clear themselves and maintain themselves?  Driving to work is a choice.  (As is living so far away that you can't take public transit).  (And notice that bases that don't have a commercial sector around them and don't have a transit system around them have... free parking, that is not a taxable benefit).

 

[Eye In The Sky]

No, the lots don't clear themselves.  The government pays for that.  Taxpayers pay the government taxes so they have money to pay for all this stuff.  Doesn't seem to complicated, really.  Like I said, I don't pay the builder I had build my current house to park on the driveway I already paid for.  Fair market value means "some way we can grab cash back".  Same as the rent amounts for PMQs that have been paid for time and time over.  Anyone who thinks the fair market value stuff is actually fair probably should get their water tested.

Millions of Canadians don't work and park on government property that their tax dollars already pay/paid for.  There's the difference.  Its a cash grab.  It isn't easy to swallow, either, when you watch the same government hand out money like we all shit it out to Bombardier, any country that might help the Lib's get their seat in the UNSC...stuff like that.  But hey, what better group to nit pick than the CAF...not like we can strike eh?

* I am not at a base where I pay for parking. 

 

[Stoker]

Or sailors can get over themselves, and like millions of other Canadians, pay for parking at or around their workplace.

Or do those lots magically clear themselves and maintain themselves?  Driving to work is a choice.  (As is living so far away that you can't take public transit).  (And notice that bases that don't have a commercial sector around them and don't have a transit system around them have... free parking, that is not a taxable benefit).
[/quote

Wasn't commenting on having to pay, just the disaster to implement the system and doing the study the correct way.  Really driving to work is a choice? I bet you're real fun to work for.

 

[dimsum]

Driving to work is a choice.  (As is living so far away that you can't take public transit). 

If that only affected folks who do a M-F 9-5 job, maybe. 

I'd wager a fair amount of those paying for parking sail or do some shift work, and therefore can't get to/from work on the regularly-scheduled bus routes (if they're close enough to even take them due to where they live, likely because house prices have gone up in the HRM).  Also, it'd be fun lugging around sea kit on the bus.

 

[Stoker]

If that only affected folks who do a M-F 9-5 job, maybe. 

I'd wager a fair amount of those paying for parking sail or do some shift work, and therefore can't get to/from work on the regularly-scheduled bus routes (if they're close enough to even take them due to where they live, likely because house prices have gone up in the HRM).  Also, it'd be fun lugging around sea kit on the bus.

Don't bother Dimsum, there's not much sympathy for us having to pay for parking.