Canada meets 2% NATO defence spending benchmark
· Toronto Sun
OTTAWA — It’s a 2% benchmark nearly 40 years in the making.
For the first time since 1990, Canada will meet its defence spending obligations to NATO — six years ahead of the target set by former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
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Speaking at a press conference in Halifax on Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said it’s incumbent for Canada to change with the times.
“The very nature of warfare is changing rapidly, it’s driven by the proliferation of drones, autonomous systems, and weapons in orbit,” he told reporters.
“We know the world has changed, and we know that Canada must change with it.”
Trudeau government plan was 2035
Meeting Canada’s NATO obligations was as key plank in Carney’s election campaign, bolstered by the PM’s announcement last June that Canada would reach that 2% goal that year — far sooner than even members of his own cabinet at the time predicted.
By 2014, Carney said in Halifax, Canada’s defence spending had fell to just one per cent of GDP.
Since NATO established the benchmark in 2006 — requiring all members to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence — Canada has never met that goal.
Canada’s defence spending — or lack thereof — became a major criticism during the last half of the Justin Trudeau Liberal government, as well as proving an irritant to the United States, particularly after Donald Trump entered the White House.
Earlier on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte credited Trump’s pressure to the alliances’ freeloaders in all members meeting their 2% benchmark this year, the first time that’s ever happened in NATO’s history.
“I don’t believe that without the present American administration the whole of NATO would have been meeting the two per cent at the end of 2025,” Rutte during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels — pointing out that members like Canada were relying too heavily on the military might of the United States for protection.
Rebuilding military key part of Carney’s goals
That’s something Carney says he aimed to change since coming into office.
“Our military infrastructure and equipment had aged, hindering our military readiness,” Carney said Thursday.
“That’s why, just six weeks after forming government, we announced ambitious plans to rebuild, rearm, and reinvest in the Canadian Armed Forces.”
Since becoming prime minister, Carney unveiled numerous initiatives meant to bolster Canada’s military, which had been left to rot — underfunded and undermanned — for the past decade.
Budget 2025 unveiled a nearly $82 billion, five-year plan to rearm and requip Canada’s military, plans to return Canada to a state of operational readiness and relevance.
A little over $20 billion of that money was earmarked for recruitment, increased pay and supports for CAF members.
“In ten months, we have spent over $60 billion on our defence and security — the single largest year-on-year increase in defence investment in generations,” Carney said.
Applications to join CAF, Carney said Thursday, have increased by 13% since last year.
Carney also unveiled $3 billion in new defence investments while in Halifax, including modernization projects at bases and naval facilities across Atlantic Canada, as well as acquiring new base housing for CAF members in Nova Scotia.
Over a billion dollars will also be spent in improvements at CFB Gagetown north of Saint John, NB.
What it will take to meet benchmark: Expert
Former federal defence policy director Joe Varner told the Toronto Sun that while Canada meeting the 2% benchmark is a big achievement, the real challenge rests in meeting NATO’s new 5%-by-2035 benchmark, enacted by the alliance last June.
“It’s good news for the NATO alliance that Canada has finally met the agreed-upon 2%, but the push to get to 3.5% and 5% will be further challenges that we’ll face in the future,” he said.
“The real issue about defense spending is that you can come up with numbers to make 2 or 3 or 5%, but the challenge is, what does it do in terms of combat capability?”
Making Canada more self-reliant takes more than just opening a chequebook, he said.
“They’re going to have to invest in infrastructure which has been allowed to go downhill when the government restricted operations and maintenance spending,” he said.
“They’re going to have to spend increasingly on personnel to reach the personnel goals they’ve set, and there’s a lot of spending in terms of equipment.”
Canada, Varner said, will need to buy submarines, AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft, commission new frigates and destroyers, and complete the purchase of Canada’s new fleet of fighter jets.
“It’s certainly a matter of political will to come to 2%, and it’ll be a matter of political will to come to 5%.”