Canada National Defence Equipment Worth Millions Of Dollars Stolen In Past Decade: Report

Canada has lost over 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.6 million) worth of equipment, including weapons, combat suits and computers over the past 10 years, according to data compiled from annual public accounts of Canada by the country's national public broadcaster CBC, also known as Radio-Canada.

A significant portion of this has been declared stolen from the Department of National Defence and may not be recovered, raising concerns of safety and privacy.

"All complaints and allegations of about lost or stolen weapons are taken very seriously and are investigated by competent authorities…furthermore, every effort is made to account for weapons used during Canadian Armed Forces missions,” Dan Le Bouthillier, a Department of National Defence spokesperson told Radio-Canada.

According to the CBC report, the items lost or stolen from the inventory since 2005 include roughly 77,000 military equipment — bulletproof vests, helmets and boots, among others — worth 5.5 million Canadian dollars. Other sectors such as transportation declared items worth over 1.45 million dollars missing; telecommunications equipment worth 253,000 dollars; tools valued at 939,000 dollars, and weapons and accessories valued at 239,000 dollars.

The Department of National Defence, however, said that the losses make an insignificant part of its vast 600-million item inventory.

Based on their calculations, the CBC report noted that the losses peaked between 2012 and 2013 — a time when Canada was concluding its mission in Afghanistan — when over 7 million Canadian dollars worth of equipment were reported stolen.

Following 2012, after several news reports highlighted the loss of military and other equipment, the Canadian Armed Forces began using technology to develop methods to improve tracking of its inventory through periodic reviews.

"It's important that the Canadian Armed Forces have security measures in place and that convoys make it to their final destinations because we can't allow for the loss of millions of dollars in equipment," Pierre Paul-Hus, a Conservative member of parliament and defense critic, told CBC while noting the improvements since Afghanistan. He also added that the new system will aid plans for military deployment to Latvia as part of a NATO mission to counter the threat of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.