Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government faces increased pressure ahead of the June NATO summit as the alliance prepares to adopt a new defence spending target of 5 per cent of member nations’ GDP. Meanwhile, Canada hasn’t even met the previous goal of 2 per cent.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed this week that member nations are expected to agree to the new benchmark when leaders gather in The Hague on June 24.
The plan would dramatically escalate current defence commitments, combining 3.5 per cent of GDP for hard military spending with an additional 1.5 per cent for broader security infrastructure.
For Canada, the proposal highlights a growing reputation among allies as a chronic underperformer in defence spending. This legacy was exacerbated under former prime minister Justin Trudeau and, thus far, has shown no serious improvement under Carney’s leadership.
Despite Liberal promises during the spring election campaign to finally reach NATO’s existing two per cent target by 2030, Canada spent just 1.37 per cent of GDP on defence last year.
Hitting the current target alone would require at least $20 billion in additional spending.
Meeting the proposed 3.5 to five per cent threshold would likely demand tens of billions more annually, while the Liberals don’t plan to table a budget in the foreseeable future.
The Liberal election platform under Carney mentioned that the Liberals would meet their NATO target but avoided indicating exactly when and by how much.
“This government was elected on a strong mandate to rebuild Canada’s defence capacity, rearm the Canadian Armed Forces, and invest in the Canadian defence industry,” said McGuinty’s spokesperson, Andrew Green.
At last year’s NATO summit in Washington, Trudeau drew sharp criticism from allies, including a public rebuke from U.S. President Donald Trump, for Canada’s failure to meet the two per cent target.
Trudeau responded by promising to hit the goal by 2032, a pledge that lacked clear timelines or contracts for promised procurements like submarines or ice breakers for the Arctic region.
Carney’s campaign promises included creating a defence procurement agency and purchasing icebreakers, submarines and drones.
The new spending target comes amid growing military collaboration between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, with ongoing conflicts in Europe between Russia and Ukraine.