Canada closer to military-spending target
Damage done by COVID to economy has increased defence’s share of GDP
OTTAWA — Canada has taken a big leap closer to meeting its promise to the NATO military alliance to spend a larger share of its economy on defence thanks to an unexpected assist from COVID-19.
New NATO figures released Wednesday show that largely thanks to the pandemic, Canada is poised to spend the equivalent of more of its gross domestic product on defence this year than at any point in the past decade. That is because the alliance expects the Liberal government to hold Canadian defence spending steady even as COVID-19 batters the country’s economic output.
Yet defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says the results are unlikely to appease the United States, as Canada continues to fall far short of its promise to NATO to spend two per cent of GDP on defence.
“I think they’ll be pleased to see positive momentum,” Perry said of the U.S., “but it doesn’t resolve their concern about where we are.”
All NATO members, including Canada, agreed in 2014 to work toward spending the equivalent of two per cent of their GDP — a standard measurement of a country’s economic output — on defence within the next decade.
The promise followed complaints from the U.S. about burden-sharing among allies and broader concerns about new threats from Russia and China as the two countries increased their own military spending.
NATO and the U.S. have repeatedly criticized Canada for not meeting the target, with President Donald Trump in December calling Canada “slightly delinquent” during a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
His predecessor, Barack Obama, also called out Canada over its defence spending during an address to Parliament in 2016. The U.S. spends more than any other NATO member on defence, both in terms of raw cash and as a share of GDP.
NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday said the importance of increasing military spending would be discussed when defence ministers from across the alliance meet this week.