Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a revised defence policy, pledging an additional $73 billion in military spending over the next two decades with a heightened priority on the impacts of climate change.
Despite the investment, the plan falls short of meeting NATO’s 2% GDP spending target, a commitment made by member countries to bolster collective defence capabilities.
Trudeau held a press conference announcing Canada’s updated defence policy on Monday. Defence Minister Bill Blair and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland joined him.
“Canada will invest an additional $8.1 billion over the next five years and approximately $73 billion over the next 20 years,” said Blair.
However, this increase will only elevate Canada’s defence spending to 1.76% of GDP by 2030, below the NATO threshold of 2% agreed upon by allies.
The new spending includes new submarines, long-range missiles, and early-warning aircraft but lacks a plan to reach NATO’s 2% goal. To address modern warfare challenges, the government also plans to enhance intelligence, cybersecurity, and AI capabilities, with significant investments aimed at establishing a Canadian Armed Forces Cyber Command.
The policy, dubbed Our North, Strong and Free, aims to address the evolving security landscape, particularly in the Arctic region.
“We recognize that with climate change, the opening of the Northwest Passage to ship traffic is going to require a lot more capabilities by Canada to demonstrate and responsibly patrol its own internal waters,” he said.
Trudeau added, “The Northwest Passage could become the most efficient shipping route between Europe and Asia by 2050.”
Concerns about the environment and climate change made a prominent appearance in the departmental plan.
“Intensifying environmental crises, driven or augmented by climate change, and threats posed by malign below threshold activities, including cyber attacks, disinformation, and foreign interference require new approaches to national defence,” reads the plan.
The policy outlines plans to modernize the Armed Forces infrastructure, including building an Arctic satellite ground station and establishing Northern operational support hubs.
However, the policy says that the initiatives put Canada on track to exceed NATO’s target of 20% for major equipment expenditures as a proportion of the defence spending.
Commitments were also made to further integrate gender equality and diversity into the military.
“Through the integration of gender perspectives in military operations and institutions, the Canadian Armed Forces will advance gender equality, increase operational effectiveness, strengthen crisis response, and ensure that operations do not reinforce or exacerbate inequalities,” the update reads.
Trudeau said that Canada is considering joining AUKUS, an alliance led by the United States with the United Kingdom and Australia.
Two-thirds of NATO allies have reached 2% of GDP spending towards defence, compared to just one-third in 2014.
While NATO currently has 32 member countries, its most recent data only accounted for 30 members. On the list of defence expenditures as a share of GDP, Canada ranked 6th last in 2023 at 1.38%. Poland was in first place at 3.9%.
If no other countries changed their spending, the 1.76% of anticipated GDP spending would bring Canada closer to the middle of the pack.
Trudeau defended the country’s inability to reach the 2% mark, placing much of the blame on Stephen Harper’s previous Conservative government.
“When we took office in 2015, we had a Canadian Armed Forces that had been significantly underinvested in by the previous government. The Conservatives actually had us down to 1% of GDP in 2014,” he said.
He added that the Liberals’ first defence policy, Strong, Secure, Engaged, increased the defence budget by 70%. He said that the most recent pledge, Our North, Strong and Free, boosts the funding to a 100% investment increase, doubling investments in defence from 2016 to 2026.
The Conservative party responded to Trudeau’s jab quickly. The party’s shadow minister for national defence, James Bezan, released a press release Monday afternoon.
“The Liberals’ first defence policy document, Strong, Secured, Engaged, was a book of empty promises. They missed every marker set out in the original defence policy for defence spending, resulting in massive gaps in equipment and readiness. Trudeau has overspent in every department except our military, yet his government promised to cut almost $1 billion annually from the defence budget and allowed over $10 billion more to lapse over eight years,” wrote Bezan.
Bezan added that only 58% of Canada’s armed forces are ready to deploy. The country is short 16,000 troops this year, he said, with an additional 10,000 who are “undertrained and undeployable.”
The Conservatives said that Canada’s warships are rusting out, the fighter jets are worn out, the army is hollowed, and the air squadrons are being shut down due to a lack of personnel.
“Trudeau is once again kicking the can down the road by committing most of the defence spending in today’s announcement until after the next election. Instead of ‘exploring options’, the brave women and men in the Canadian Armed Forces need new kit, better training and investments in their futures today, not 20 years from now,” said Bezan.