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And for those remaining in public service, doing right for taxpayers is subsumed by empire building and rewarding personal allies.

Almost five years ago, Andrew Leslie wrote his Report on Transformation, which argued for “more teeth and less tail.” Clearly, this was not popular with many within NDHQ leadership, who saw their many perks at risk. Leslie quickly became persona non grata, especially with a Conservative government at the time who broached no criticism of their defence narrative, and who were pouring money into National Defence, ostensibly because of Afghanistan, but which also led to a 38 per cent increase in headquarters staffing between 2006 and 2010.

The biggest de facto military base in Canada is no longer Petawawa, Halifax or Trenton. It is by far Ottawa, with more than 18,000 positions, of which over 5,000 are “managers.” The thousands of senior officers and civilian managers in Ottawa make from a minimum of more than than $100,000 to well over $400,000 per year, plus benefits. And while worker positions were cut between 2012 and 2014, there are now more managers than ever, many with no or few subordinates reporting to them.

This is not just about the billions spent on a surplus of management at HQ. The old phrase “Too many cooks spoil the stew” is an appropriate one, and one of the leading explanations for the inability of most procurement projects to be anything but unmitigated disasters. Massive duplication of effort, a management culture that accepts political interference without challenge — especially under the previous regime —inefficiencies of scale due to being just too big for the size of the actual, operational military, and little to no enforcement of conflict of interest rules, are all outcomes of the present state of both the civilian and military side of NDHQ.