OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – Ottawa is taking heat for more defence spending that critics say appears just as frivolous as a multi-billion dollar contract for new fighter jets. $130-million is being spent on new portable weather shelters for the military.

$60-million of that goes to a contract with Port Coquitlam company Wesgar-Weatherhaven, which will build 400 units to replace others that are 30 years old.  The expandable units are placed on the back of military trucks.

In his own riding, Tri-Cities MP James Moore defends it saying the safety of our troops shouldn’t be hindered by our own equipment.

“And if we want to ask the Canadian Forces the kind of missions that we’ve asked them to do just over the past number of years, not only military missions in Afghanistan, their work in Libya, and humanitarian efforts in Haiti and elsewhere, we want to make sure they have world-class equipment,” Moore said at a news conference.

NDP Defence Critic Jack Harris feels it’s all spin.

“There’s no obvious need for the moment, and it’s not clear what it would be used for in the future,” notes Harris, who adds Canada is pulling out of Afghanistan in 2014.  “We don’t know the details of this contract and it looks like political spin.  The F-35 announcement comes to mind in Ottawa two years ago where they’re using this media approach to get publicity for, in this case, spending money in the Minister’s own riding.”

Critics have also questioned such big spending announcements by the Tories, at a time when cuts have been made to other operations like Coast Guard facilities.

Moore, meanwhile, insists the money for this contract was part of this year’s budget announced in March.