CANADA STEPS UP
If there is one positive outcome from Donald Trump, it’s that his America-first presidency has finally forced Canada to take its military seriously. It might have been Trump’s scolding of NATO allies who don’t carry their weight in defence spending or growing doubt this unpredictable and isolationist president would ever send in the marines to defend an ally under attack.
Whatever the reason, the sudden realization that a sovereign nation should not rely so heavily on a neighbour for its protection is a welcome, if long overdue, epiphany.
“To rely solely on the U.S. security umbrella would make us a client state,” Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a speech to the House of Commons foreshadowing Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s defence policy announcement.
It’s a dramatic about-face for a government whose leader last year abruptly pulled Canadian warplanes out of the fight against ISIS.
Sajjan’s plan calls for a surge in defence spending, from $18.9 billion this fiscal year to $32.7 billion in 2026-27, an increase of more than 70 per cent. It sounds like a lot, but this mix of new and previously announced money will allow for only a modest boost in the size of the military — 3,500 new personnel in the regular forces and 1,500 for the reserves — amounting to five-per-cent growth over the next 10 years. The extra funding is also expected to bring as-yet unspecified investment to CFB Edmonton, which is good news.
It commits more money for new fighter jets than previously planned and modern warships to replace aged equipment in the air force and navy. Like the Alberta government of the 1990s which deferred spending on roads, bridges and schools to balance the budget, successive federal regimes starved the military in every budget and repeatedly kicked big-ticket purchases down the road.
The back-burner defence policy has forced Canada’s military to do more with less and less. In most cases, the nation’s fighter jets, tanks and frigates are far older than the soldiers, sailors and airmen who must take them into harm’s way. Even the new spending will only boost Canada’s defence budget to 1.4 per cent of GDP by 2024-25, still well below the two-per-cent contributions that NATO members promised in 2014.
Modest as it is, the big question facing the Liberals’ new-found commitment to defence is whether it will outlive previous ambitious defence strategies. Will the military get its funding if the federal deficit mounts? Or if Liberal voters balk at the party’s new unexpected priority? Or when Donald Trump is no longer president of the United States?