Sajjan hints at new money for military

OTTAWA — Canada’s defence minister is hinting at new money for the military following a meeting with his U.S. counterpart in Washington this week.

But Harjit Sajjan said what’s equally important is what countries do with their military, a line successive federal governments have used to fend off criticism of Canada’s defence spending.

“It’s about defence investment,” Sajjan told reporters on Tuesday. “But also what are you actually doing with them? If you look at it, whether it’s NATO coalitions or even the UN, you have very similar nations that are always providing the resources.”

The comments come one day after Sajjan met U.S. Defence Secretary James Mattis at the Pentagon, the first meeting between a Canadian minister and a member of the Trump administration.

Trump has repeatedly blasted NATO allies for not spending enough on defence, a message he repeated Monday even as Sajjan was meeting Mattis.

“We only ask that all of the NATO members make their full and proper financial contributions to the NATO alliance, which many of them have not been doing,” Trump said during a speech in Florida.

The Canadian government is currently drawing up a new defence policy that sources say will start inching defence spending closer to NATO’s tar- get of two per cent of GDP.

But Canada’s current defence budget of $20 billion accounts for less than one per cent of GDP, meaning the government would have to double spending to $40 billion to reach NATO’s target.

Even with the additional funding, sources say Canada will still fall far short of that goal.

Past governments have highlighted Canada’s contributions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq to defend against pressure from allies to increase defence spending.

Sajjan adopted a similar tack Tuesday, saying Canada has “stepped up” at NATO and in the fight against the Islamic State terror group.