[Alex Blair (RIP)]

I'm glad my Canadian taxes are helping the troops in Afghanistan..
Other than pay increases for serving members in the Big "A" there is probably no better moral booster than Tim Horton's...

OTTAWA -- In late June 2006, a pair of Soviet-era Illyushin-76 transport planes left Canada, carrying inside their cargo bellies tonnes of precisely chilled ingredients for making doughnuts and bagels.

Along with the precious cargo, six Canadian experts made the 10,000-kilometre journey over the North Pole to a region of the world from which Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs advises its citizens to stay away.

That place was Kandahar, Afghanistan, home to roughly 2,300 Canadian soldiers who are there to fight terrorism and rebuild the nation. Their mission was simple: to set up and train a team of Canadians to open the first Tim Hortons franchise outside of North America, at a place where Canadians feel furthest away from home.

Although while the Oakville, Ont.-based company initially balked at opening a franchise nine time zones from their main market (Canada and the U.S.), negotiations between Tim Hortons and the Department of National Defence eventually led to what was initially thought to be a private franchise operation on the Kandahar airfield -- the site of Canada's main base of operations in the region.

However, through Access to Information requests, Global National has learned that it took a lot more than thirsty soldiers longing for a "double-double" morale boost to open the Afghan coffee shop -- to the tune of nearly $4 million in Canadian taxpayers' dollars.

Upon the March announcement of the plans to open the Kandahar branch, Tim Hortons announced in a press release that it would convert a trailer normally used for restaurant renovations and deliver it to the Canadian Forces for use in Afghanistan.

Documents obtained now show that in fact, two trailers were purchased and retrofitted at the cost of $378,000. And renting the two Illyushin-76 cargo planes to transport the trailers over? The Canadian government picked up the $425,000 tab for that too.

The costs don't stop there:

- First delivery of ingredients: $1.4 million
- Sustaining the business through the first year: $550,000
- Engineering work to establish the outlet: $350,000
- Operation and maintenance: $150,000
- Salaries: $650,000
- Training: $30,000

The total cost for the first year of operations at Tim Hortons' Kandahar operations was over $3.9 million. And keeping the operation running during the duration of Canada's mission in Afghanistan is estimated to cost as much as $5 million a year.

The only major expense Canadians won't be paying is the $450,000 franchise fee, which Global National has learned that Tim Hortons has waived in this particular case.

On a positive note, the outlet serves over 1,000 coffees a day, and in its second month of operation, actually ran out of doughnuts and Timbits due to high demand. Yet even here, any profits earned by the outlet -- which despite the enormous startup costs only charges $1.50 US per cup of coffee in order to keep it affordable for the soldiers -- are likely to stay in Afghanistan.

"I don't think the Canadian public will see this coming back," said Tyler Chamberlain with Ottawa University's School of Management. "Hopefully that contribution is going to be felt by the troops."

And for many soldiers, all of whom have much more pressing issues to think about than the financial circumstances involved in bringing Tim Hortons to Afghanistan, a little taste of home certainly helps pass time in a place that has already claimed the lives of 42 comrades since 2002.

"If you've had an interesting day, you can come back here and unwind and decompress," said Master Sgt. Eric Cramer. "It lets you go back, ready for another try."

© Global National 2006