The most recent government assessment of the war in Afghanistan notes some signs of success, but warns modest progress remains difficult in an increasingly violent country.

Trade Minister Stockwell Day, who chairs the cabinet committee on Afghanistan, tabled the government's fourth quarterly report on the NATO-led mission Wednesday in Ottawa.

The latest report — aimed at measuring progress in Afghanistan — covers January to March 2009. It recorded a fourth straight quarter of increased violence in Afghanistan, noting this winter was the most violent since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Kandahar province, where most of Canada's roughly 2,800 soldiers are serving, remains a dangerous place with an assassination campaign against Afghan government officials and moderate clerics, says the report. A majority of residents in the province did not perceive improvements in security.

Ten Canadian soldiers were killed in the three-month period examined in the report. Since the mission started in 2002, 118 Canadian soldiers and two diplomats have been killed.

The report says there has been little progress on government-funded development projects in Afghanistan:

• Roughly $50 million worth of repairs to the Dahla irrigation dam have yet to begin and none of the promised 10,000 jobs has been created.
• Canadians intend to build or renovate 50 schools in the province by 2011, but to date only five have been opened, while another 25 remain in the planning or construction stage.

The report does point out some success, including progress in establishing an Afghan army presence in Kandahar.

However, only six per cent of Afghan police units are capable of operating on their own, according to the report.

'There is a monetary cost and a human cost'

RCMP Supt. Paul Young, who spent a year in Afghanistan mentoring the chief of Kabul's police force, says the number of Canadian police officers working in Afghanistan will increase this summer.

He says corruption is a major problem faced by Afghan police.

"It's a decision that every police officer, when they go to work every day in Afghanistan, individually has to make," he said.

With the Canadian economy in the midst of a recession and the government staring at a budget hole of between $85 billion and $172 billion over the next five years, Day was asked whether the country could still afford everything it had promised in Kandahar.

"There is a cost to this; there is a monetary cost and a human cost," he replied.

Day says the mission must be followed through to its conclusion.

"We can't really afford not to continue. The cost of terrorist attacks can very quickly surpass anything that is spent by ourselves and others in providing security in Afghanistan."

Documents released by the Privy Council Office last winter suggested Canada could spend as much as $13 billion on the Afghan mission, but the parliamentary budget officer suggests the figure could be much higher.

Canada's combat role in the NATO-led mission is due to end in 2011.

With files from The Canadian Press