To convince Canadians that we need to get serious about defence spending in this dangerous world, our leaders actually have to lead – and all parties have declined to do so for decades
Every government minister has a role to play. As Minister of National Defence , Bill Blair’s role seems to be to find new and more creative ways to imply that Canada will live up to its NATO commitments without ever actually committing to do so. Or certainly that it would, if only he were Defence Minister.
Here are the actual facts. The government will spend $41-billion on defence this fiscal year, through National Defence or other departments, equal to 1.39 per cent of GDP. By fiscal 2030, five years from now, the defence-policy update projects spending will have risen to $57.8-billion, or 1.76 per cent of GDP.
Mainly it means: more. We need, as an alliance, to spend more to meet the heightened threat from what is fast becoming an alliance of the world’s dictatorships, led by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Much of this has to do with government insistence on securing “regional benefits” – jobs in politically important locations – from these purchases, or even building domestically, where it would be cheaper and faster to buy them from another country. As much as we need to spend more, then, it’s even more important to spend smarter., that the government would have a hard time getting the money out the door in a timely fashion, even if it did commit to 2 per cent.
It’s not hard to see why. Meeting our NATO targets isn’t just a matter of spending another $15- to $20-billion annually on defence, but of finding the money to fund it. Aof that size isn’t in the cards: The public would not stand for it .
Defence Time Cent Alliance Government Minister Gdp Halifax International Security Forum NORAD Stephen Harper
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