Jobs program, self-esteem, military hype or all three? Canada's cadet corps costs $2400+ per year per youth.

  Most Canadians don't know much about cadets. Perhaps they should. Altogether, cadets amount to about one percent of defence department (DND) spending. In 1998, the Auditor General said that DND's equipment budget should grow by two to three percent of its total budget to keep up with peacekeeping demands. Since 1993 support for the Air Cadets, Army Cadets, and Sea Cadets has totaled approximately three-quarters of a billion dollars.
  The Canadian Cadet Program is described as "the largest federally sponsored national youth training program for 12-18 year olds." The key words are "federally sponsored." The program is dwarfed by Scouts Canada and the Girl Guides of Canada, which provide similar, but civilian-focused, activities to a combined total of 350,000 Canadian children and youth, using almost no government funding. Scouts Canada receives no public money. The Girl Guides receive about $25,000 in a typical year.
  To be sure, the cadet program has many supporters and few outright critics. Community service organizations across Canada are involved and pick up the tab for the weekly cadet activities that take place through the school year. Summer programs for about 25,000 youth are paid for by the federal government. These can include trips, technical instruction and survival training. Since this is by far the most expensive aspect of the program, it's possible per-cadet costs for these summer programs could run over $5,000 per cadet, all paid for by federal taxpayers.
  Colonel Rick Hardy is Canada's Director of Cadets. A veteran search-and-rescue pilot, he loves the program and regrets that most Canadians know nothing about it. "It's not a military youth program, it's not a recruiting program, it's not an apprenticeship program," says Hardy. "It's a commitment to better citizens."
  Canadians should not confuse the Cadets with the Reserve, which actually creates a significant number of jobs for young people, especially in economically distressed areas. Unlike reservists, cadets themselves are not paid, although there are 5,000 members of the Cadet Instructors' Cadre. These are officers who are technically part of the Canadian Forces Reserves and draw just 21 days annually. There are about 2,900 other support personnel.
  Cadets are not formally part of the armed forces and are not subject to being called up for service under any circumstances. This has always been the case, but the distinction was made even stronger in January this year, when Canada agreed to the establishment of a protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that specifically bans the use of children under age 18 on operational missions of the armed forces (including peacekeeping). The only concrete contribution that the cadets make to any mission of the Canadian Armed Forces is as a PR/recruiting tool related to their ability to "build interest" in the Forces.
  DND spokespersons stress the value to youth of being cadets in terms of job training and experience.
  "It gives quite a bit of training and job skills," says information officer Lina Calamo. "Some of these kids become employed as instructors. There are a lot of training and mentoring aspects." She points to Canadian astronauts Chris Hatfield and Marc Garneau as outstanding products of cadet programs.
  Membership in the Cadets, like the Scouts and Guides, probably makes a pretty positive contribution to the personal development of its members. But does this quasi-militarized version of the Scouts/Guides really deserve multi-hundred- million dollar subsidies that are not made available to its much larger (and evidently much more popular) non-military equivalents?