Ottawa is reviewing its defence spending plans “from top to bottom,” Defence Minister David McGuinty said Thursday, as Canada comes under pressure from allies to ramp up spending to levels not seen since the height of the Cold War.
McGuinty said the federal government will have more to say “very soon” about its alliance spending commitments and will be “making announcements in this regard.”
“Canada is revisiting all of its expenditures presently, from top to bottom,” he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“Just recently, our prime minister announced a $6 billion new effort to secure our Arctic, Canada’s Arctic. So we’re working very hard now with colleagues to implement a series of changes. We’ll have much more to say about that financially in very short order.”
McGuinty is in Belgium taking part in the NATO defence ministers’ meeting, the last major NATO meeting ahead of the leaders’ summit later this month — where members are expected to agree to increase their defence spending targets.
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Defence ministers are meeting to draw up “capability targets” — basically shopping lists itemizing the kinds of arms the 32 member nations need to buy.
The lists of priority purchases include air and missile defence systems, artillery, ammunition and drones.
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“Today we decide on the capability targets. From there, we will assess the gaps we have, not only to be able to defend ourselves today, but also three, five, seven years from now,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said.
Canada is under heavy pressure to increase its defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP — a three-point hike from the current target.
Ottawa has long struggled to meet the current 2 per cent benchmark and spent just 1.33 per cent of its GDP on defence in 2023, according to a recent NATO report. The NATO secretary-general’s annual report, released in April, said that Canada’s defence spending would hit 1.45 per cent for 2024.
Leaders of allied nations will gather on June 24 and 25 in the Netherlands for the annual NATO summit, where they’re widely expected to agree on a massive hike to their defence spending commitments — mostly at the behest of U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said on the doorstep of NATO headquarters Thursday that he expects member countries to agree on 5 per cent at the summit.
“To be an alliance, you’ve got to be more than flags,” he said. “We’re here to continue the work which President Trump started, a commitment to 5 per cent across this alliance, which we think will happen — it has to happen — by this summit at The Hague later this month.”
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No member country currently meets the 5 per cent benchmark — not even the United States. Hegseth took no questions when he spoke to reporters as he entered the building.
The plan being put forward at the summit would commit member countries to spending 3.5 per cent of annual GDP on core defence needs — such as jets and other weapons — and 1.5 per cent on defence-adjacent areas like infrastructure, cybersecurity and industry.
Canada hasn’t spent the equivalent of 5 per cent of its GDP on defence since 1957, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The last time it spent 2 per cent was in 1990.
The government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau suggested that once Canada purchases up to 12 new submarines to replace its aging Victoria class subs, it should meet the 2 per cent target. Ottawa expects to award a contract for the new fleet of subs by 2028.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised during the recent election campaign to move up Canada’s deadline for meeting the 2 per cent threshold from 2032 to 2030 or sooner.
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McGuinty said Thursday that Canada is keenly aware of how the global security environment has shifted and is watching geopolitical risks increase.
“We are under no illusions about the scale of the challenges ahead,” he said. “Russia’s unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine continues to destabilize the global security landscape. China’s growing ambitions and increasingly assertive behaviour are eroding stability in the Indo-Pacific. And the erratic actions of regimes like North Korea and Iran are undermining the rules-based order we all depend on.
“In the face of these growing threats, we must all do more. We will all do more.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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