Canada will need “substantial and sustained” defence spending increases to meet its NATO obligations by 2035, a new report from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) states.
The Liberal government has not yet revealed how it intends to reach the target of spending five per cent of GDP on defence within the next decade — a significant jump that would see core defence spending increase from $95.7 billion in 2030 to $163.7 billion in 2035-36.
Pulling that off, the PBO report suggests, will depend on how well the federal government handles complex procurement projects in a relatively short timeline — historically, a challenge for Ottawa.
The promised increase in defence spending would have significant implications on the federal budgetary picture, the PBO report noted.
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“The PBO estimated that the additional core defence spending would increase the budgetary deficit by $63.7 billion, or 1.4 per cent of GDP, in 2035-36 relative to the (status quo scenario, and) federal debt would be 5.7 percentage points of GDP higher,” the report says.
But the budget watchdog also noted that the massive boost in military spending would have implications for Canada’s “economic activity, industrial capacity” and the domestic defence industry.
“While many aspects of the government’s defence expenditure strategy remain in development, current defence spending already supports economic activity across a range of industries and regions and can inform potential forward dynamics for the Canadian defence industrial base and wider economy,” the report noted.
Canada has for years been a laggard in NATO spending commitments. The military alliance set a target of countries spending two per cent of GDP on defence in 2006 — and Canada consistently failed to meet that target.
Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to change that, and Canada is expected to hit that longstanding two per cent NATO spending target for the first time this year. But the Carney government has been less clear about how it intends to reach the new benchmark of spending five per cent of GDP on defence— or how Ottawa will pay for it.
Asked recently about the lack of transparency around defence spending plans, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said more details are expected in the government’s 2026 budget.
“Obviously when we’re going to present Budget 2026 … we’ll be looking at measures to make the Canadian economy strong and make sure that, you know, the systems and procurement we’re doing to meet the NATO requirement, but at the same time that the Canadian economy can finance these big investments,” Champagne told reporters in July.
Ok Ben, instead of our military shooting the enemy we can hit them with our purses. Does that confer to your view of our military?.
All of this talk of tampons and manginas is giving my the cramps.
I had those tampon dispensers installed so that I had access to them for my mangina while I was visiting the troops
@Try This.
F35 works in our environment just fine.One thing regarding the F35 is the Gripen is that the F35 is integrated with a lot of the U.S. defense and radar systems so it is actually part of a massive weapons platform rather than standalone type fighters.It is a huge advantage for Canada to fly the 35 over the Gripen
Ben is upset with the comments regarding tampons in the Men’s bathrooms on base because without them he would have to go buy his own rather that poping in at his local base and grabbing a few handfuls for free.
Setting a goal of 5% is pure Trump. He is running his country into the ground. We should be spending wisely, not just throwing money around, as if it will not hurt eventually when the budgets get balanced, and we start decreasing our debt.
A good example is spending money on unneeded submarines. Or buying F-35’s that do not work in our environment. We need our armed forces to be the best, not the most costly.
Why are we even trying?
The Liberals would rather spend money on pumping children with hormone blockers, painting sidewalk rainbow colors, and euthanizing anyone who basically comes up with a reason to be..
If you cannot survive without government funding, you are not private enterprise, you are an illicit arm of the government violating the constitution.
Please, call me names rather than having an articulate response that addresses the commentary.
Thankfully you’d have to have a catastrophic deficiency in brain cells to confuse journalism today with being any representation of free speech or democratic institutions and as I see the Crime section at Global News maintains citizens have no right to express opinions as a perfect example of their failure to democracy.
But hey, they have a right, even when funded by government, to hide behind a wall of freedom of speech because they are citizens and not just illicit government funding like the NGO that cannot survive government funding cuts.
We should investigate why the right is so obsessed with what’s between someone’s legs. If someone wants to transition because it will make them happy, they want to put a stop to it. Is it because they secretly want to transition? Like the study that suggested homophobia is associated with same sex desire. They hate what they secretly desire? Eventually there will be a study about their obsession with tampons, bathrooms, and potty rituals and we shall find out.
Carney spends on gender fluid rice in developing countries. He will find the money needed to pay for defense spending. It will come from your wallet. Enjoy the elbowz.
The cunada military can always be human toilets for real WARRIORS
Oh Ben, standing up for tampons in the mens bathroom is not very becoming of you. If you agree with that concept then you and your soy boy ilk deserve to be taken over.
maybe have Freeland become the minister of defense. Then all of the Ukraine dollars she is in charge of could be used to upgrade our militaries equipment needs.
Glad to see the far right is yet again obsessed with who goes to the bathroom, and exaggerating costs. I can’t speak to the psychological urge and yearning for said obsession, but Freud did.
What?! We installed tampon dispensers in the men’s bathroom on base. That increased defence spending by several thousand dollars for the machines. And several dozen millions to have a Liberal insider install them.
How about twinning the TransCanada highway for defense. In an emergency rushing equipment to the west coast would be hampered by the hundreds of miles of 1 lane awful roads in BC. Infrastructure can apply to defense spending.a perfect project. BC has a plan to twin the highway within 200 to 300 years at their current pace
Instead of giving fn , which is roughly two percent of the population, over 34 billion tax payers dollars annually, should that money go to defense spending instead?
@Anonymous. Impressive way to misunderstand the subject. “Buy Canadian” does not mean refusing every foreign made system. It means buying, where possible, Canadian. With your brilliant defense strategy, you want us to buy everything foreign and slap a Canadian flag on it. That is not soverignty.
Carney won’t deliver. All of his election promises have not been kept so far.
Throwing away money on other militaries isnt gonna cut it?
Well, time to drop that buy Canadian idea and start relying on foreign governments for our military.