{"id":563357,"date":"2026-03-27T02:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/563357\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T02:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:08:08","slug":"ottawas-defence-spending-plan-has-ambition-but-half-of-the-equation-is-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/563357\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa\u2019s defence spending plan has ambition, but half of the equation is missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney greets members of the Royal Canadian Navy aboard HMCS Margaret Brooke at the HMC Dockyard Halifax on Thursday.Darren Calabrese\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Impressive ambition. A needed boost for Canadian sovereignty. Some hope for industrial transition. But when you get down to the math, there is only half the equation.<\/p>\n

The figures are big. After touring a Royal Canadian Navy ship on Thursday, and boasting that Canada has finally met the NATO target for defence<\/a> spending, Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> made a point of underlining the scale of the defence buildup to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next decade, Canada will unleash a half a trillion dollars \u2013 I\u2019ll repeat, a half a trillion dollars \u2013 in defence and defence-related investment, from submarines and aircraft to drones, sensors and radar systems,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Still, let\u2019s remember there was supposed to be something else that went with \u201cinvesting\u201d in Mr. Carney\u2019s big picture. The equation he promoted was \u201cspend less to invest more.\u201d Lately, half of that formula has gone missing. <\/p>\n

Readers share their thoughts about Canada reaching NATO\u2019s military spending targets<\/a><\/p>\n

Certainly, the Canadian public isn\u2019t worrying about deficits right now. But the Prime Minister is telling Canadians his government is embarking on a massive, transformative, budget-revamping plan that will displace other government activities for a generation.<\/p>\n

There is a budget plan to trim some spending, including cutting 30,000 jobs in the federal public service over three years. Real people will lose jobs. But that will save the federal treasury a pittance compared with the defence buildup.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Martin: Can the U.S. finally just shut up about Canada\u2019s defence spending?<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, in Halifax with Defence Minister David McGuinty, Mr. Carney celebrated the fact that NATO<\/a> had declared that Canada has finally met the alliance\u2019s spending target<\/a> of 2 per cent of gross domestic product.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a milestone. Canada spent only 1 per cent of GDP on defence in 2014, the year when the 2-per-cent target was set. For a decade, there was no real plan to get there. It\u2019s a signal of change.<\/p>\n

Yet the 2-per-cent target is now officially a stepping stone to a more ambitious target, set last year, of spending 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035. <\/p>\n

Mr. Carney didn\u2019t just promise to meet that new target. He touted the planned buildup as a necessary means to protect Canadian sovereignty and build Canadian defence industries. He embraced it as a big part of his plan for Canada\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this century, the work of defending Canada is also the work of building Canada,\u201d he said Thursday.<\/p>\n

So, what will Canada stop doing to make way for that big priority?<\/p>\n

The estimated defence spending for 2025-26 was roughly $63-billion. To meet the 2035 target of 3.5 per cent of GDP, it would have to be increase by nearly $50-billion \u2013 more, presumably, because the country\u2019s GDP will (hopefully) grow over the next decade.<\/p>\n

The scale is enormous: Ottawa could completely eliminate three medium-sized federal departments, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the national child-care program and national dental care and it still wouldn\u2019t cover that proposed increase in defence spending.<\/p>\n

(It\u2019s worth noting, too, that the new NATO target comes with a related target to spend an additional 1.5 per cent of GDP on defence-related spending \u2013 although that rubric includes so many things that it will be less onerous.)<\/p>\n

Opinion: Canada\u2019s new defence policy must do away with the old orthodoxies<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, Mr. Carney\u2019s government could back away later from the 3.5-per-cent target. NATO set the new targets to appease U.S. President Donald Trump, so perhaps they will be dropped when Mr. Trump leaves the White House. Or Mr. Carney could delay the bulk of further spending increases till he leaves office.<\/p>\n

But he has just told us all that spending is needed, that it is vital for Canadian sovereignty and the Canadian economy. He touted it as a way to build a new industrial base, and that seems pretty important for a country with industries threatened by U.S. trade policy. Presumably he doesn\u2019t want to hold back till 2035.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that the Canadian public isn\u2019t in the mood for an austerity program. Mr. Carney boasted about unleashing half a trillion dollars because he wants people to envision economic growth. And he\u2019s not going to set out details of the next 10 budgets.<\/p>\n

But there has to be something to fill the hole. Mr. Carney is telling us he is embarking on a decade-long program to invest more in defence because it is a critical vocation for government in this century. That requires a long-term plan to transform government. That side of the equation is missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Prime Minister Mark Carney greets members of the Royal Canadian Navy aboard HMCS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,15147,48,15148,20739,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-563357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-campbell-clark","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-canadian-politics","12":"tag-ottawa","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}