A CarBank Ltd. sign inside a service centre at CFB Petawawa, Ont., on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009. (Sun Media/Pete Fisher)

PETAWAWA -- The last thing you'd think we would want our soldiers in Afghanistan worrying about is if they die there, will a $250 cancellation fee have to be paid to get their car out of a storage facility and returned to their family.

And yet this is what a lot of them and their families were worrying about this week -- when word got out that a $250 cancellation fee had to be paid for a contract broken by Pte. Michael Freeman.

The contract was indeed broken. But there was a pretty good reason.

Freeman, of Peterborough, was killed in action by a roadside bomb on Boxing Day.

In the end, grieving families are compensated but the fact is at their most vulnerable moment they still have to deal with a $250 bill and a cold bureaucracy.

"It's disgusting," military wife Wendy Leduc said.

No word on whether this would happen to Taliban fighters.

Needless to say, there are people here on the base outraged -- as are some in the war zone in Afghanistan.

"There are guys e-mailing their wives telling them to get their cars out of there," said one military insider.

There is a Facebook page dedicated to this, with dozens of angry comments and puzzled people.

How could this be? It seems heartless. The family has to see their son brought home in a box and then be told he's violating a storage contract?

"It's just wrong," said Karen Beauparlant last night at the Tim Hortons on the base which is abuzz with a mini-controversy swirling here all week.

"What can you say about something like that?" adds her friend Kristen Vincent. "It's not fair."

Both of their husbands will deploy to Afghanistan next year. "We worry about them every day," said Beauparlant. "We don't need this."

Calls to the owner of privately owned Carbank, who has a contract with the base to store cars, were not returned and a woman answering the phone for businessman Kevin MacWilliams said, "the base commander speaks for him."

Lieut.-Col. Bill Moore, base commander, CFB Petawawa, did issue a base-wide memo to "clarify" what has become a hot topic in a place which has had to endure the loss of 24 soldiers during the war -- and has many men and women stationed there still today.

He wrote: "Mr. Kevin MacWilliams, the owner of Carbank storage, has dealt with approximately two dozen incidents whereby the car owners were killed during operations. He incurs a cost of $250 each time this happens. The removal fee is a legitimate fee which Director of Compensation Benefits Administration (DCBA), not the family, pays for. It covers an incurred cost to Mr. MacWilliams and is part of a legitimate contract established with DND."

REPAIRS COVERED

He also said: "Mr. MacWilliams had also completed a number of repairs totalling $500 which was not charged to the family or DCBA. He did this at his cost as he wanted the car to be safe and completely roadworthy for the Freeman family" and that "there have been many occasions whereby Mr. MacWilliams and the Base Service Station/Carbank have gone out of their way to assist soldiers who have been injured."

"It is unfair to single out this particular businessman who has done much behind the scenes to help out our troops."

There is another side to this story, which is why Pete Fisher and I drove six hours in the snow from Toronto to CFB Petawawa to get it.

It turned out to be difficult to get to MacWilliams. We were approached at the Carpark office by an unidentified man saying "everybody has opinions" and "everybody should mind their own business."

You'd think there would be room on this massive base to park while they are risking their lives for Canada.

"It's just dumb," said Kody Scott on the base.

What I am also interested in is how a private businessman receives such a contract and how the rates are determined. Are such opportunities tendered?

MacWilliams was not at his base office last night and at his home in the town a kind woman said "he is not here" and "would not be commenting."

He has my cellphone number when he's ready.

He is, I'm told, a former 20-year-member of the Canadian Armed Forces and we certainly would like to hear his side. The woman at the door said it's "true" he has in past waved the $250 fee when a fallen soldier's family wants to retrieve a car.

But we don't know specifics since he has yet to speak with us. Whatever he has done, we do know he will be getting his cancellation fee and it will be paid by the military.

Does this happen on other bases? "I have no idea about subcontracting on bases and when/where it started," Capt. Andrew Hennessy, the base media relations officer, says.

"As for free parking -- if you are referring to parking on base -- I personally don't think we have the space as once a roto (rotation) goes out the door, we start training for the next one, hence more people, more cars, etc."

It's certainly a new issue for the Canadian military and perhaps one national defence can consider. One military mom with a son stationed in Kandahar told me she sure hopes they do.

"All of this for a matter of money?" asked Olga Field. "It doesn't matter that the family does not have to pay in the end. It is the principle."