Minister delays release of new defence policy

Sajjan says plan will be unveiled after PM attends NATO summit next week

OTTAWA— Canadians will have to wait until next month to see Canada’s new defence policy — after federal politicians have first met with allies in Washington and Europe.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced Monday that the longawaited defence policy — which had been expected this week — would instead be delivered June 7.

That’s after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends a meeting of other NATO leaders at a summit in Brussels on May 25.

And it comes after Sajjan himself and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland hold scheduled talks in Washington this week with the Trump administration, including James Mattis, the U.S. Secretary of Defence.

In the Commons Monday, interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose charged that Canadians were being left in the dark while allies were getting a preview of Canada’s new de- fence plans — and the spending to back it up.

“I know the chamber has not seen it, members of Parliament have not seen it, and the military has not seen it,” Ambrose said.

“Why do Washington insiders get privileged access to Canadian defence policies before the Canadian public does and before the Canadian military does?” she said in question period.

The coming policy review is expected to detail the country’s defence priorities over the next two decades, the kinds of equipment — and funding — needed to fulfil those missions.

The Liberals have hinted that it will outline a “significant” boost to military spending, which now stands at about $19 billion a year, or about one per cent of GDP.

NATO nations, including Canada, have pledged to meet a target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence. Since coming to power, U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressuring NATO allies to live up to those spending commitments.

It was expected that the federal Liberals would release the new defence plan prior to the May 25 meeting of NATO leaders. But that plan is now off the table and Canadians will have to wait a few weeks more.

Sajjan said Monday that the defence plan will be released on June 7, after Freeland gives a speech on Canada’s “foreign policy foundation.”

Speaking later to reporters, Sajjan did not rule out that the defence policy will be part of the discussions with the American administration during his visit on Monday and Tuesday.

But he denied they were getting a sneak peek, saying that Washington has been involved from the start.

“When it comes to our discussions and working with our allies, multilateralism is very important to have input into our defence policy review as we did the consultation, and that’s what good allies do, and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” he said.

“Our coalition partners have been part of our defence policy review from the beginning,” Sajjan said, adding that he reached out to Canada’s closest defence allies for advice.

“We took their recommendations, many of them, and incorporating that into ours where we actually added the industry consultation as well, and that’s what good partners do,” he said.