Defence spending low despite mystery bump

OTTAWA • The Liberal government sought to deflect criticism about Canada’s overall defence spending Monday by pointing to new NATO figures showing a mysterious boost in investments for military equipment last year.

The comments came as NATO’s top official threw down the gauntlet by calling on all members to spend more on their militaries in the face of rising tensions around the world.

Speaking in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said it is incumbent on all members to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. That is the target all NATO members, including Canada, agreed to work towards in 2014.

“All our efforts must be underpinned by adequate resources and fair burdensharing,” Stoltenberg said. “It is realistic that all allies should reach this goal. All allies have agreed to do it at the highest level.”

Stoltenberg’s report said Canada saw a small bump in defence spending in 2016, which pushed the percentage of GDP spent on defence to an estimated 1.02 per cent, up from 0.98 per cent.

That would move Canada up to 20th from 23rd in terms of spending among NATO’s 28 allies, but would leave it in the bottom half of the alliance’s members.

The figures are estimates at this point because the government’s fiscal year ends on March 31, which means there could be some changes in the final three months.

In response, the Defence minister’s office pointed out that the NATO report found Canadian spending on military equipment had actually increased substantially over the previous year.

All NATO members agreed to invest 20 per cent of their defence budgets on equipment to ensure alliance members continue to field modern militaries with state-of-the-art capabilities.

Stoltenberg’s report estimated Canadian spending on military equipment jumped from about 13 per cent in 2015 to 18 per cent last year, which would be the highest ratio in 20 years.

“When it comes to investing in the Canadian Armed Forces, Canada’s priority is to ensure that our women and men in uniform have the training and equipment they need in order to do important work on behalf of Canadians,” Sajjan’s spokeswoman, Jordan Owens, said in an email.

“We are focused on ensuring that our partners and allies, as well as Canadians and people around the world, see the tangible benefits of our investments in defence and security.”

But defence officials, who are currently reviewing the way Canada calculates defence spending compared to other NATO allies, were hard pressed to explain the sudden jump in equipment spending.

Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute was mystified by the reported increase, particularly since the Liberals delayed $3.7 billion in planned capital spending in the budget.

Perry said there was a valid argument for using investments in new equipment as another way to measure Canada’s NATO commitment, in addition to overall spending. Canada has consistently under-invested in equipment, he said, which is why the country is currently dealing with aging fleets of fighter jets, helicopters and naval ships.

“If we actually get an increase like that, that’s pretty consequential,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to all but dismiss the two per cent target during a visit to Germany last month, saying: “There are many ways of evaluating one’s contribution to NATO.”

Canada spends about $20 billion a year on defence and would need to double that to reach the NATO target.