QUESTION PERIOD — National Defence
Royal Canadian Navy
November 27, 2024
Senator Gold, the Royal Canadian Navy has been doing some excellent work that many Canadians may not know about including leading multinational efforts to interdict drug trafficking and human trafficking through the Arabian Sea. Three frigates have been deployed to support our Indo-Pacific Strategy including moving through the Taiwan Strait to demonstrate that those are international waters free to navigation. However, our navy faces a significant challenge in the recruitment of personnel. What steps is the government taking to make sure that our navy has the committed experts that it needs to keep us safe and global democracy strong?
Thank you for your question and for highlighting the important work that the Canadian Armed Forces and the navy do to keep us safe and to take us into the future. In that regard, the government is looking at ways to seriously increase recruitment to our navy and Armed Forces.
The government has released a directive for Canadian Armed Forces reconstitution and the Canadian Armed Forces Retention Strategy and has shared that permanent residents are now welcome to apply to join our Armed Forces. I’ve also been informed that the government is expediting suitability screening, implementing new enrollment medical standards and is deferring aspects of pre-enrollment security screening to post-enrollment. The government will continue to examine ways to do even more to diversify and grow our military.
Thank you, Senator Gold. Canada is under great pressure to meet our 2% North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, commitments urgently. One way to do this would be to immediately invest in maintaining current Royal Canadian Navy infrastructure — which I understand cannot keep up with demands on it — such as necessary work in the Halifax dockyard and in Shearwater. Can you tell us when the government plans to make these necessary investments which, as I understand it, would count towards our NATO commitment?
Thank you. As the government announced, it has a plan to reach our NATO commitment by 2032. The government has already increased defence spending by 27% over the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months. Equally importantly, the government made the largest investment in the Canadian navy since the Second World War. It has purchased hundreds of new aircraft for our air force and reinvested in cutting-edge capabilities the army urgently needs. It will continue to invest in our military in the best interests of our country.
