She went on to praise Canada for its contributions in several missions, including its deployment to Iraq, it's role in Ukraine for several years and its presence on the borders of Russia and Latvia.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says he has ordered officials to look at how Canada calculates military spending compared to other NATO members, to ensure all allies are comparing "apples to apples."

As part of its NATO commitment, Canada is supposed to spend two per cent of gross domestic product on defence – but it’s been almost 30 years since the government last hit that threshold.