Defence spending better late than never

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 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 long overdue epiphany. “To rely solely on the U.S. security umbrella would make us a client state,” as Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland put it in a speech to the House of Commons foreshadowing Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s defence policy review.

It’s a dramatic about-face for a government whose leader last year 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.

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 that deferred spending on roads, bridges and schools to balance the budget, successive federal regimes starved the military 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 air crew 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 its GDP by 2024-25, still well below the twoper-cent contributions that NATO members promised in 2014.

The big question facing the Liberals’ newfound commitment to defence is whether it will outlive previous ambitious defence strategies such as those that withered under prime ministers Paul Martin and Stephen Harper.

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?