Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to reach NATO’s new five per cent of GDP spending on defence target by 2035, giving his government ten years to meet the new goal. He also stated that Canada is finally on track to meet its initial agreement to spend two per cent of GDP on defence this year after years of delays.
During a NATO summit in the Hague Wednesday, Carney announced Canada’s pledge to raise Canada’s two per cent of its GDP defence spending commitment to 3.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent for industrial and infrastructure by 2035.
“With increasingly open Arctic waters and rapid advances in cyber, in AI and quantum with advanced missile capacities we can no longer rely on our geography to protect us,” he told reporters. “As the global landscape shifts the collective security created by the alliance remains the strongest most effective way of protecting the security of Canadians so together with our allies we must ensure that NATO remains strong unified and ready to confront the threats.”
He said infrastructure and industrial investments will include ports, airports, transportation infrastructure, “resilient telecommunications,” emergency preparedness systems, and the development and exportation of critical minerals—investments he said will largely improve Canada’s economy as well as defence.
“These are responsibilities we have today to Canadians, and responsibilities that, by and large, we are fulfilling,” Carney said. “Now we are going to do a more proper accounting of that and a more strategic set of investments in that.”
He said a review of the spending will take place in 2029, notably after U.S. President Donald Trump is set to leave office.
“First and foremost, we are protecting Canadians. We are protecting Canadians against new threats. I wish we didn’t have to, but that is but we do have to, and it is our core responsibility as government,” he said.
Carney noted that if the “threat environment” escalates, Canada will need to consider sacrificing other areas of spending if necessary but currently no cuts will be made to reach the targets.
“We should spend for the environment, not for what could be an arbitrary number,” he said. “The fact that we are doing this today, the fact that we’re united, the fact that United States is fully behind this. The fact that we’re working together is going to reduce the threat environment.”
He confirmed that Canada is currently engaged with European partners for procurement of big ticket items such as fighter jets and submarines rather than purchasing those from the U.S. market. He noted that submarines are “a bit of a procurement process” and will likely not be finalized until 2028.
During the press conference, Carney also shot down the suggestion that Canada would formally join the EU, but that Canada shares the values of the EU and want to deepen ties with it.
He said Canada shares EU values on liberty, democracy and the importance of solidarity. He compared Canada and Europe’s social welfare programs and their ability to “neutralize” their differences and work together with others to protect the “rules-based international” order.
“Part of what Europe is focused on as members of the European Union is the so-called ever-closer union. We’re looking for a closer partnership with that union,” he said. “So yes, we cooperate much more clearly and broadly to our mutual benefit, not as a member, but along that continuum.”