Has Trudeau ruled out fulfilling NATO defence target? U.S. report stirs questions
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing new questions about his government’s military spending commitments after a report suggested he has privately told NATO officials Canada will never meet the military alliance’s two-per-cent-of-GDP spending target.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that a secret Pentagon assessment — part of a trove of documents leaked to the Discord messaging app and social media sites earlier this month — says Canada’s “widespread” military deficiencies are “straining partner relationships and alliance contributions.”
Asked about the report in Ottawa on Wednesday, Trudeau told reporters that Canada remains committed to NATO and investing in Canada’s military, but he did not answer whether he has ruled out Canada meeting the NATO spending target.
“I’ve continued to say and will always say that Canada is a reliable partner to NATO, a reliable partner around the world with our military investments, with the support we give Canadians. We will continue to do that,” he said.
“We will continue to be working on investing in giving the support necessary to the men and women in the Canadian Forces to deliver … Canada continues to be a partner that is much sought after.”
Global News has not seen the leaked document or independently verified its contents. Requests for comment sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, NATO and the U.S. Northern Command were not immediately returned.
A Pentagon spokesperson would not comment on the leaked document, but told Global News that “the bond between the U.S. and Canada remains close.”
NATO’s latest annual report, released last month, shows Canada spent an estimated 1.29 per cent of its GDP on defence spending in 2022. That’s down from 1.32 per cent the year before and is far below the two per cent threshold agreed to by NATO members, a target NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called “a floor, not a ceiling.”
Only seven of NATO’s 30 member states met the two per cent target last year. The report notes just four members were meeting it when the guideline was set in 2014.
The assessment reportedly notes Canada’s military budget has stalled below 1.4 per cent of GDP over the past 26 years. Privately, Trudeau reportedly “told NATO officials that Canada will never reach 2% defense spending,” the report cited the U.S. document as saying.
The document cited by The Washington Post, which reportedly bears the seal of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was allegedly leaked along with several others that included classified information on everything from assessments of the war in Ukraine to U.S. intelligence on China and Turkey.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested and charged over the weekend for allegedly being behind the leak.
According to the Washington Post, the document says allies including Germany are growing concerned about the Canadian Armed Forces’ ability to balance its myriad commitments, from aiding Ukraine against Russia’s invasion to boosting its battle group in Latvia to a brigade level — all while meeting its contributions to NATO and NORAD, the continental defence pact Canada shares with the U.S.
Global News has spoken to multiple defence sources from the U.S., Turkey and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance over recent months who have expressed the same concerns.
A spokesperson for Defence Minister Anita Anand told Global News Wednesday that Canada “will continue to grow its military capacity to meet the challenges of today’s world,” pointing to a number of recent spending and procurement announcements.
Those include $19 billion for 88 new F-35 fighter jets to replace its aging fleet, a $1.4-billion upgrade to its Dwyer Hill Training Centre special forces base, and $1 billion to date in military aid to Ukraine.
Canada has also pledged nearly $40 billion toward modernizing NORAD over the next 20 years, though it remains unclear how much of that spending is actually new money.
Anand’s spokesperson also pointed to the defence policy review announced last year. Yet he did not address the missed NATO spending target or whether it will ever be met.
“Canada is a founding member of NATO and has the sixth-largest defence budget among the Alliance’s members,” Daniel Minden said in a statement. “Our commitment to Euro-Atlantic and global security is ironclad–and we continue to make landmark investments to equip our Armed Forces.
“We will continue to invest in the Canadian Armed Forces and deliver modern equipment to our military, which is renowned around the world for its excellence and professionalism.”
The Canadian Armed Forces has been facing a recruitment shortage and lengthy delays in procurement of new equipment for years, which experts say have reduced Canada’s military readiness. The recruitment challenges come after exclusive reporting from Global News that began in early 2021 detailing what experts call the “crisis” of sexual misconduct in the military.
On Wednesday, the assistant deputy minister of materiel, Troy Crosby, the Department of National Defence’s top procurement official, blamed the delays on defence companies overpromising what they can deliver in order to win contracts, rather than focusing on meeting their commitments.
That came after several former defence ministers, military officers and government officials signed an open letter from the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, which advocates for Canadian national security issues, that called on Ottawa to accelerate procurement timelines and strive to meet the NATO spending target.
The leaked document also reportedly includes concerns over procurement and the readiness of Canada’s existing military equipment, including its stockpile of Leopard 2 tanks — eight of which Canada is sending to Ukraine. Nearly all the tanks “require extensive maintenance and lack spare parts,” it allegedly says. Anand has said Canada will purchase new Leopards to replace the ones sent to Ukraine.
The assessment also reportedly takes issue with the delays in upgrading the Latvia battle group and modernizing Arctic security capabilities, “despite multiple public statements.”
The Washington Post report says the date the document was written is obscured, but it includes information on events and intelligence from February of this year.
That includes the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon and three subsequent unidentified objects over North American airspace, including in Canada’s north. All of those objects were shot down by U.S. fighter jets, despite NORAD commanders scrambling both Canadian and American aircraft in response to the three unidentified objects.
Gen. Wayne Eyre, Canada’s chief of the defence staff, told a House of Commons committee last month Canadian fighter jets were delayed from taking off in response to the objects due to freezing rain. He added the incident, which sparked renewed scrutiny over NORAD’s capabilities and Canada’s commitment to the pact, offered “some lessons that we are garnering from this.”
In March, during U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa, the two countries committed to fast-tracking some of the previously-announced modernizations to NORAD, including “over-the-horizon” monitoring in the Arctic. Biden and Trudeau discussed defence spending during their meetings, but avoided public discussions of any dispute over Canada’s contributions.
Ahead of Biden’s visit, Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman told Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson on The West Block that recent defence spending announcements sparked a shift in how Washington is viewing Canada’s commitment to security.
“There is no doubt that the U.S. will always be looking to Canada and other allies to do as much as they can,” she told Mercedes Stephenson on The West Block Sunday.
“But I have noticed that, as we have made our announcements with respect to the investments in NORAD modernization, the purchase of the F-35s, the fact that we are now in the middle of another defence policy review … I think it’s changed the tone from where I sit in Washington to a pretty important degree.”
—With files from Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson
by Global News
