Defence Minister Bill Blair on Friday pushed back on U.S. critics of Canada’s defence spending, saying the eight-year plan to reach its NATO commitment was “credible and verifiable” despite reports saying otherwise.
Speaking to reporters at the opening of the Halifax International Security Forum, Blair said “nobody has to argue with me” that Canada needs to spend more on defence, and that the federal government was making the necessary investments, but more international and industry collaboration is needed to reach the NATO spending target.
“I’ve told (our allies) they are pushing on an open door,” Blair said. “We are going to make those investments.
“We know that we need to do more, but it’s (about) getting there in a timely way. It’s going to require cooperation and collaboration with our closest allies, with industry and some really hard work by the Canadian Armed Forces.”
Canada is one of just eight NATO members not meeting the alliance’s benchmark of spending at least two per cent of GDP on defence. Its updated defence policy forecasts spending will rise from 1.37 per cent of GDP currently to 1.76 per cent by 2030.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed at July’s NATO summit that Canada’s defence spending will hit two per cent by 2032. Yet the parliamentary budget officer last month said the government’s plan for achieving that is unclear and based on “erroneous” economic projections.
The financial watchdog’s report said Canada will have to nearly double its annual military spending to $81.9 billion from current levels to achieve the NATO target.
But Blair, who has previously dismissed the PBO’s findings, said Friday the 2032 timeline was “realistic” given how long it will take to deliver on equipment like naval destroyers and F-35 fighter jets.
The incoming Donald Trump administration is expected to take a hardline stance on NATO and members’ spending commitments, and will have several allies in the U.S. Congress.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, who is leading the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Alliance meeting in Montreal this weekend, unloaded on Trudeau’s defence policies in an interview with Politico on Friday, using words like “freeloading” and “incredible arrogance” and warning of potential consequences.
“You’re being dishonest saying that you’re going to meet a commitment that you don’t,” Turner said. “You are cheating everyone else and that has to be addressed to some extent by everyone else who’s not cheating.”
Blair called the comments “unfair” when asked about them in Halifax.
“I think we’ve already demonstrated just in the last two years a real commitment to begin the important and necessary work of acquiring new platforms for the Canadian Armed Forces, with planes and ships and submarines and other new technologies, new weapons systems, ammunition,” Blair said. “All of that work is is well underway.”
The minister pointed to the Canadian Armed Forces’ “very credible plan to significantly accelerate” recruitment as an example of how Canada is taking its defence commitments seriously.
Another was the timeline on acquiring a new submarine fleet, after Blair would only say the government was “exploring” it during April’s unveiling of the defence policy update.
“Everybody rolled their eyes and said, you’re just kicking the can down the road,” Blair said. “Two months later, the prime minister announced that we were going to acquire 12 of them. Two months after that, we went into the market with an RFI.
“I hope that sends a signal.”
At the same time, Blair said more work and collaboration with industry partners and allies is needed to speed up procurement, though he said there were “many opportunities for us to accelerate” the 2032 timeline.
He also said Canada shares “a certain frustration” with how long it’s taken to deliver military aid to Ukraine, which is set to be a major topic of discussion at the Halifax forum.
Friday saw a notable example of those delays, when Blair announced a new U.S.-built air defence missile system had arrived in Ukraine — nearly two years after Canada purchased it for $406 million.
Blair said that was accelerated from the four-to-five-year timeline Canada was first given by its industry partners, before the U.S. government “stepped up” and helped prioritize the procurement.
“It still took two years,” Blair said.
“I think that is part of the conversations we need to have here with industry, and not just here, but ongoing with how we accelerate production.”
Blair has previously testified that production delays held up the missile system Canada ordered.
The minister said speeding up production and delivery was more crucial than ever as adversaries and competitors like China rapidly build up their own forces.
“We have to keep up, not in order to engage in conflict, but to prevent conflict,” he said.
Blair also acknowledged that his message was quite different from his speech at the Halifax forum a year ago, when he underscored the need for Canada to put “resources … behind our aspirations” when it comes to defence.
“I came here last year and said, we need to spend more money, we needed to do more,” he said. “We’ve been working tirelessly over the past 12 months to do just that.
“I’ve now got a substantial new budget. I’ve also got commitments from my government and the investments we have to make. And we have what we think is a timeline on when we can get that done.”