Canada getting ‘closer’ to key NATO defence spending target, minister says

U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Cohen told 'The West Block' host Mercedes Stephenson that Canada’s military spending lags plans from others amid a more hostile world stage.

Defence Minister Bill Blair maintains Canada remains committed to reaching NATO‘s target of members spending two per cent of GDP on defence after the U.S. ambassador called Canada “the outlier” in the alliance due to not having a path to reach that target.

In response to a question at the defence committee by Conservative defence critic James Bezan, Blair said initiatives in the recently published defence policy update and budget will increase military spending by 27 per cent next year.

“It brings us much closer to that two per cent. The things I’ve articulated in these estimates, under the Strong, Secure, Engaged project and now in the new defence policy update, brings us to 1.76 (per cent of GDP),” Blair told the committee.

The minister then added that initiatives laid out in the defence policy update are fully costed, while he continues to look into additional potential purchases of submarines and missile defence systems.

When talking about these future plans, Blair said he and his team are still researching these purchases before bringing a spending plan to cabinet for approval.

The defence policy update lays out a roughly $8-billion increase in military spending over the next five years.

“We know that most of the funding in your (defence policy update) is backloaded for the future government, it’s not going to be for this government,” Bezan said at committee, before asking about plans to increase the military housing stock.

Blair responded by saying that Canada has “doubled” defence spending since the Liberals took power in 2015 and criticized Bezan for voting against government spending efforts.