Prime Minister Mark Carney recently walked a gauntlet of parked military gear while visiting Canadian and allied troops in Latvia. All of it was spit and polish, some draped in camouflage and looking showroom ready, if not somewhat menacing. It was an impressive, seemingly substantive, display of combat power. If only he'd known what it probably took to get those tanks, armoured vehicles, howitzers and other pieces of kit onto the concrete vehicle park.

The Canadian battlegroup, the nucleus of the NATO brigade in Latvia, has been suffering through a critical — and in some cases crippling — shortage of spare parts that has regularly sidelined vehicles, CBC News has learned. A recent internal briefing, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News, shows the vehicle off road (VOR) rate for the Canadian contingent in the Baltic country has been "high" and that it even affected a recent training exercise. The factors forcing the army to park vehicles include Canadian "supply chain issues, parts backlog" and the new "compressed" training regime, which has seen troops complete their combined arms training in Latvia, rather than in Canada, said the internal briefing.

During a recent brigade-level training, known as Exercise Strike, which took place alongside other NATO allies this summer, the Canadian mechanized infantry company, Leopard tank squadron, combat support units and headquarters were considered combat ineffective (CBT IE) because of the off-road rate, said the undated briefing. The slide deck said the affected equipment included LAV 6 light armoured vehicles, Leopard 2A4s (the roughly three-decade-old main battle tanks), command-and-control vehicles and utility vehicles including the trucks that tow howitzers. Due to the high rate of vehicles not being available, "more than 150 personnel" were left out of battle (LOB) or unable to participate in the training exercise. That represented more than 30 per cent of the Canadian personnel involved in the drill, said the briefing. The Canadian commander of the NATO brigade acknowledged there are issues with spare parts and used Leopard tanks as an example.

"Spare parts directly contribute to the serviceability of the tanks that are here. So, we have not completely squared that away," said Col. Kris Reeves. He said the Canadian contingent has the "priority of parts that are available in the Canadian system" and must be ready to fight at all times. Reeves said he hopes the issue will be sorted out within a year, and that Defence Minister David McGuinty told him that "he's actively working on it."

Supply system challenges

Part of the $9.3 billion in defence spending announced this summer by the Liberal government is earmarked for improving the stock of spares throughout the military. During last week's Latvia visit, McGuinty acknowledged they are trying to fix the problem as quickly as possible for the entire military. "We went looking for the money needed to continue the investments needed, and we are thinking about the whole question of how we buy the parts, how we purchase the necessary materials and how we continue it quickly and together," McGuinty said. But it is not just a question of filling up the stock bins. The system itself needs an overhaul. Parts for the German-manufactured Leopard 2A4s come from Europe. But because of the military supply chain, those parts have to first go to Canada before they are shipped back to Europe for use in the brigade.

The absence of spare parts for the Leopard 2A4s has been a long-established, well-documented issue for not only Canada but other allies who use the old fighting vehicle. It became a major, almost intractable, issue for Ukraine after tanks donated by allies broke down or were damaged in battle and parts were almost impossible to find. "This is not acceptable," said retired lieutenant-general and former Liberal MP Andrew Leslie. Canadian troops have been deployed in Latvia for several years and the crisis in Eastern Europe kicked into high gear with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. "By now, for heaven's sake, we should have figured out how to keep our troops in harm's way with the right levels of equipment, with the right levels of spare and ammunition, supplies," said Leslie, former commander of the Canadian Army.

Decades of underfunding is partly to blame. But more recently, Leslie said the Trudeau government's plan to give more money to the military for equipment, while forcing the Defence Department to cut elsewhere, has exacerbated the problem. "You've gotta get your act together because it's not happening right now," said Leslie. Alan Williams, who was in charge of the Defence Department's purchasing branch in the early 2000s, also condemned the shortages and said there's been plenty of time to sort out the issue. He said it has become custom at the department to cut what's known as national procurement funding, the pot of money that pays for — among other things — inventories and replacement stocks. During the former Conservative government's drive to cut the deficit in the 2012-14 timeframe, that line item took an enormous hit and wasn't fully restored by the Liberals. The policy of buying equipment but then not setting aside enough money for maintenance and repairs is a disservice to the public and the troops, Williams said. "It really pisses me off, you know, because our guys deserve the best equipment properly maintained," said Williams. "Don't play games. You don't say you're going to provide them with these things and then shortchange them on the money so that they can't deliver with it. It's insulting and our guys and gals deserve a lot better."