Minister, welcome to the Senate of Canada. Minister, based on your new defence policy released in April, military spending will reach $58 billion by 2029-30. This will be 1.58% of GDP, well below the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, target of 2%. Last July, just three months later, your government said it would reach NATO’s military spending target of 2% by 2032. But to reach the 2% by 2032, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, says this would require defence expenditures to increase from $58 billion to $82 billion by 2032. That’s a very significant increase of $24 billion, or 40%, over three years. It’s simply not credible. You have yet to release figures detailing how you will increase your spending to achieve the 2% target.

My question is this: When will you release the details as to how you are going to reach the military spending of $82 billion in 2032 to reach the 2% target?

Thank you very much, senator. I believe this is a very important question, and a question I have taken up in some detail with our colleagues among the NATO defence ministers. First of all, if I may provide a little clarity, I’m not ungrateful for the work of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, and I think he does exceptional work on all of our behalf. At the same time, as I’ve pointed out to him, Canada committed to reaching 2% of the NATO target. To be very clear, this is a spending metric; it doesn’t talk about the why or the how or the what that we have to do in order to achieve it. It only tells us how much.

But the NATO target that, frankly, in 2013, Prime Minister Harper committed to in Wales was to reach 2% of the NATO target as defined by NATO, and in that definition that they’ve applied to all 32 members of NATO is a calculation of GDP based on the calculations of the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development, or OECD, of what our spending will be. Those numbers are marginally different than that which is provided by the PBO, but I would offer that clarification.

I also would say that when we came forward with our defence policy update, Our North, Strong and Free, in April of this year, it coincided with the subsequent release of our budget, which did provide a spending target up to 2029. But we acknowledged, as the Prime Minister did when we went to the NATO summit, that Canada must reach the 2% target and will reach the 2% target by 2032. I have been able to provide —

Thank you, minister.

Thank you very much, minister, but you didn’t give me the answer, and you still have to give us the details as to how you’re going to get to the 2%. But I do want to say that your department has been challenged to deliver on the 2017 defence policy. Your department has a history of lapsed funding, delays in delivering capital projects on time and on budget. In fact, between 2017 and 2023, your department spent $12 billion less on capital projects compared to what was planned under your 2017 defence policy.

Hence the reason why I’m asking you for your detailed plan to reach the 2%. I’d like to know what —

Thank you.

These are important questions, and I want to acknowledge their importance. One of the challenges that the Department of National Defence has faced, along with the Canadian Armed Forces, is our procurement processes. We acknowledge that those procurements have taken a long time. There are many reasons for that. We’ve done a very deep dive on how we can expedite those important capital acquisitions. I think there’s been some very important work done.

I’ll cite this as an example: Just in the last year and a half, we’ve now signed contracts for over 200 new aircraft, including the P-8, the F-35 and new training aircraft. We’ve signed new contracts, and we’re in the process of negotiating a construction contract for building our new River-class destroyers with Irving Shipbuilding. We’re delivering for next month. We’re going to put it in the water. The first —

Thank you, minister.

Let me agree with one point, sir. You are much less polite, but, unfortunately, you’re also wrong. And if I may, the report that was published in April articulated our plan over the next five years, but it also includes significant new spending: $73 billion over 20 years. However, almost immediately we recognized that does not get us to the 2% commitment, so a decision was made and announced by the Prime Minister — it’s not just our expectation; it’s our commitment — to reach 2% of our GDP spending by 2032.

I have been working very hard since then. For example, in our budget, there was no mention of purchasing submarines in April. The Prime Minister committed to the purchase of 12 new conventional class submarines in July. In September, we put a request for information, or RFI, out into the market. We’re moving very quickly to get that because that’s a capability that our navy needs, and our allies expect us to do so.

There are a number of other very significant investments indicated in the defence policy that are now being worked on very actively — for example, integrated air and missile defence and new infrastructure to support our Armed Forces. Perhaps I’ll get an opportunity to speak later about the reconstitution plans that the Chief of the Defence Staff and the deputy minister have brought forward, which will enable us to get the people we need to put on those ships and to maintain and fly those planes, as well as to do the important job that the Canadian Armed Forces does.

I might remind the new administration that in 2013 when then-Prime Minister Harper committed to 2%, that same year he also cut the defence budget by $2.5 billion, reducing it for the first and only time in Canadian history to below 1% of our GDP. I will also tell you that Canada is an important and respected member of NATO. Just recently — a week ago — I met with the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and articulated our plan to ensure we deliver on the capabilities that NATO requires of us. We’re going to get the job done. It’s our commitment, and we’re going to live up to it.

Minister, welcome to the Senate. I would like to focus my intervention on the impact that President-elect Trump might have on Canada’s defence strategy.

We know that Mr. Trump has been clear about his demand that NATO members reach the 2% spending target. And I’m sure you saw the op-ed by congressman Mike Turner in Newsweek last month that called us out on our failing grade in achieving our NATO commitments. Yesterday, the Prime Minister said the government has been preparing for the eventual return of Mr. Trump to the White House. Will the U.S. be satisfied with our long-term plan to reach the 2% target by 2032? Should we not reassess our NATO funding commitments in light of the election results, and how seriously is the federal government taking Mr. Trump’s threat that the U.S. would not protect allies that fail to meet the 2% target?

Throughout Canada’s long history in NATO and in all of the work that we have done to defend peace and security around the world, every expedition for Canada has been expeditionary. We have sent our soldiers to fight in conflicts around the world, and Canada’s contribution is always highly valued and respected by all of our allies.

I would also say that the 2% commitment is a commitment that we’ve made to all of our NATO allies, but it’s also a commitment that we’ve made to all Canadians and to our Canadian Armed Forces. We know that decades of underinvestment in the Canadian Armed Forces has resulted in a situation where we need to make significant new investments in their organization, in their people, in the infrastructure that is there to support them and in the important platforms that they use to do the jobs that we ask of them. I believe very strongly that we will be able to articulate to all of our allies, including the United States, our unwavering commitment to get the job done. I think that they will also understand that it takes time to deliver those 15 new battleships, for example, that we’re building. It’s going to take time to build and deliver those new submarines that we require. Even with the new fighter aircraft, we have a delivery schedule. It takes time to deliver on those important acquisitions for the Canadian Armed Forces.

We’re making the commitment, we’ve dedicated the money, we’re signing the contracts and we’re moving ahead on all of those acquisitions. I think we can articulate a very clear plan to reach the 2% target by 2032, as we’ve indicated we would.

Just yesterday, former U.S. ambassador Kelly Craft urged us to take geopolitical changes more seriously in the North. Are you confident that Canada is adequately prepared and that our funding requirements are sufficient to defend and protect the Canadian Arctic? Despite new investments announced in Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence, many remain worried that defence spending is insufficient. Personally, I’m concerned about Arctic sovereignty which, as your vision states, is the most urgent and important task we face.

Thank you very much. I’m going to agree very vigorously. I think for everyone who has read our new defence policy, Our North, Strong and Free, you can see I have placed an enormous emphasis on our responsibility to defend the sovereignty and security of our country, our continent and our interests in the High Arctic. We’ve articulated a plan, and we recognize that we have to make significant new investments.

When I’ve gone north, I’ve learned about what sovereignty and security really mean to the people of the North: It’s infrastructure, as they’ve told me very clearly. That includes building new airport runways, power plants, water treatment plants, fibre optic networks, highways, medical facilities and the facilities that are going to be needed to support our military operations in the North. There’s also a huge opportunity to make use of —

Thank you, minister.