Anand says Canada on track to hit defence spending targets but asks, ‘is that enough?’

Defence Minister Anita Anand said on Friday that Canada is "still on track" to hit spending targets, and billed the current moment as a "crucial" one for Canada and allies.

Defence Minister Anita Anand says Canada needs to be asking whether the country can do more when it comes to defence spending and contributing to key alliances like NATO and NORAD in the midst of the threat posed by Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine.

In an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson from Latvia during the minister’s visit last week, Anand said the current threat environment has raised more questions about how best to prepare.

“We know from our defence policy that we will be increasing defence spending by 70 per cent over the nine-year period beginning in 2017,” she said.

“But in the context of the current threat environment, we must ask ourselves, is that enough? Should we be doing more?”

The 2017 defence policy reset known as Strong, Secure, Engaged laid out a roadmap for boosting military spending by 70 per cent over the course of the coming decade. That is projected to see spending rise from $18.9 billion in 2016/17 to $32.7 billion by 2026/27.

Anand said on Friday during a speech to defence industry leaders that Canada is “still on track” to hit those targets, and billed the current moment as a “crucial” one for Canada and allies.

Russia invaded Ukraine, a sovereign democracy, on Feb. 24 in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland have repeatedly described as an existential threat to the rules-based international order in place since the end of the Second World War.

In the weeks since, Russian troops have besieged Ukrainian towns and cities, unleashing shelling and violence that last week saw a maternity hospital attacked in the port city of Mariupol.