Cost of new federal defence strategy unclear; opposition wants details

The opposition pounced on the lack of clarity to accuse the government of making an announcement without any substance.

"They can't give any details, and they can't say whether the cost of the plan is $30 billion, or $50 billion or $96 billion," Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said in the House of Commons.

"No one in this government has a clue what their defence policy actually is, or how much it will cost."

Harper told the Commons the $30 billion he announced Monday represents what the annual budget of the Department of National Defence will be at the end of his 20-year plan. The current budget, around $18 billion, will be slowly increased every year until it hits that target.

Part of that money, the Prime Minister's Office says, will be used to buy $45 billion to $50 billion worth of new military vehicles, airplanes and other equipment over the 20-year period.

By Thursday afternoon, the prime minister's office was still unable to provide a final price tag.

Critics lashed out at the defence plan, saying it was simply a vague rehash of Conservative election promises without any documents to spell out details. But Harper told the Commons his government has a firm plan to address what he called 13 years' of neglect of the military under the former Liberal government.

"I expect every step along the way, the Liberal party will oppose rebuilding the Canadian military," he said.

The New Democrats suggested the government was hiding the real cost of the strategy in order to avoid public criticism.

"When we talk about the size of the investment that they're talking about, which they don't seem to actually have quantified themselves ... I think Canadians would be quite shocked," NDP Leader Jack Layton said.

Some components of the defence strategy appear to be more vague than earlier Conservative promises.

In 2006, the Tories pledged to expand the Canadian Forces by adding 70,000 regular members and 30,000 reservists over a five-year period.

Harper reiterated those numbers in his Monday announcement, but did not give a time frame.