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The Canadian Forces wants its personnel to give up their sleeping bags and rucksacks to head off shortages of such equipment for new recruits in the future.

The recall got a lot of attention in the news media over the last two weeks, including comments from the Conservative Party about how the Liberals had yet again bungled supplying “our brave men and women” in uniform.

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Lt. Col. Robin Chenard, a staff officer working on logistics operations for the Canadian Army, told Defence Watch that it is believed that around 4,000 individuals in the Canadian Forces have two or more rucksacks so it wants those military personnel to return them if they are not needed.

But what about the military sleeping bags?

Defence Watch suggests the Canadian Army might try looking in Ukraine.

In 2014 the Conservative government removed 735 sleeping bags from the Canadian Forces stock and donated them to Ukraine’s military.

Actually, a lot of Canadian military equipment can be found in Ukraine. In August 2014, Canada supplied 30,000 pairs of ballistic eyewear, 2,300 bullet-proof vests, 350 first aid kits, 7,000 helmets, 735 sleeping bags and 100 tents.

In November 2014 Canada announced another shipment from Canadian Forces stocks, including 30,000 coats, 30,000 pairs of pants, 70,000 pairs of boots and 4,500 pairs of gloves

The Canadian government spent $1.6 million to ship $5 million worth of equipment, according to figures obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.