EDITORIAL: Time for straight talk on our military funding
Article content
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attending Tuesday’s meeting of NATO leaders in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, let’s be realistic in admitting Canada is not going to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of its Gross Domestic Product on national defence in the foreseeable future.
Canada has never come close to that target agreed to by the 31-nation military alliance in 2014, now seized with supplying arms to Ukraine in the face of the invasion by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which began in February, 2022.
Recommended Videos
tap here to see other videos from our team.
EDITORIAL: Time for straight talk on our military funding Back to video
tap here to see other videos from our team.
While most NATO members are below the 2% target, Canada is among the lowest at 1.29% and the lowest among the G-7 nations that are members of NATO.
In that group, the U.S. spends 3.5% of GDP on defence; the U.K. 2.2%; France 1.9%; Germany 1.5% and Italy 1.5%. (The seventh member of the G-7, Japan, is not a member of NATO.)
Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux reported last year that to achieve the 2% NATO target, Canada would have to increase military spending by an additional $75 billion by 2026.
More important in the real world is making sure that when the federal government tasks the Canadian military with assignments in foreign countries, it provides it with the resources needed to do the job.
Trudeau, for example, has just announced that Canada’s ongoing military mission to Latvia, as part of NATO’s effort to contain Putin’s aggression, will more than double in size to 2,200 troops by 2026, compared to the existing force of 800.
As the CBC reported last month, while Canada has contributed over $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Canadian soldiers on the Latvian mission had to buy their own equipment because of shortages described as “concerning, verging on embarrassing” by their battle group commander.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
tap here to see other videos from our team.
And who will ever forget Canadian soldiers arriving in Afghanistan in 2002, outfitted with dark green camouflage uniforms instead of those designed for desert warfare?
Given that, as the Washington Post reported in April, Trudeau himself has told our NATO allies that Canada will never meet the 2% funding target, let’s at least make sure that our ongoing military missions are properly equipped to do the job the federal government is asking them to do.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.