To meet NATO target, Canada must up defence spending by $75.3B: report – National
The parliamentary funds officer says the federal authorities would want to spend an extra $75.3 billion on defence over the following 5 years for Canada to achieve NATO’s goal of two per cent of GDP.
Yves Giroux launched an impartial forecast at this time of the army expenditures wanted for Canada to satisfy the goal, agreed to by NATO members in 2006.
Based mostly on authorities figures, Giroux forecasts that Canada’s whole army spending will improve from $36.3 billion within the 2022-23 fiscal yr to roughly $51 billion in 2026-27.
Canada has confronted rising calls to spice up its defence spending to satisfy the NATO goal in mild of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Liberal authorities spent an estimated 1.36 per cent of Canada’s GDP on the army final yr, with solely 4 different NATO members having spent much less: Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain.
Giroux says in a press release that the goal of two per cent of GDP stays out of attain over the medium time period, however the hole between Canada’s spending and the benchmark is projected to lower over the following 5 years.
Canada’s defence spending elevated 67 per cent between 2014 and 2021, the report stated, with about half of that spent on personnel.
NATO additionally agreed that tools ought to make up at the least one-fifth of general spending. Canada is now at 18 per cent, however Giroux notes NATO makes use of budgeted figures in its calculations, and delays in tools acquisitions will not be accounted for.
Giroux additionally notes that there are shortcomings to setting a spending goal as a share of GDP, together with that the ratio will fluctuate “based mostly on components unrelated to defence capability, comparable to inflation, fluctuations in trade charges, and financial circumstances each home and world.”
