By Canadian Press

Trudeau told NATO Canada can’t meet defence spending target, Washington Post reports

Apr 19, 2023 | 4:06 PM

WASHINGTON — The Washington Post says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately told NATO that Canada would never meet the military alliance’s targets for defence spending. 

The Post report, published today, is based on the contents of a trove of top-secret Pentagon documents that were leaked online in recent weeks. 

The report cites one anonymous document as saying that “widespread” military deficiencies in Canada are causing friction with security partners and allies.

NATO has long urged members of the alliance to spend at least two per cent of their GDP on defence — a target Canada, among others, consistently fails to reach. 

The Post says the Canadian Armed Forces warned in February that a major operation would be impossible, given its role leading a NATO battle group in Latvia and ongoing aid to Ukraine. 

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The document, which bears the seal of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, reportedly says Haiti is frustrated by Canada’s reluctance to lead a security mission there, something the U.S. has been pushing for. 

“Widespread defence shortfalls hinder Canadian capabilities,” the Post quotes the document as saying, “while straining partner relationships and alliance contributions.”

Canada has long faced criticism domestically and around the world for a perceived reluctance to meet NATO’s spending expectations. 

NATO established the two per cent threshold in 2006 to ensure ongoing military readiness and provide “an indicator of a country’s political will to contribute to NATO’s common defence efforts,” the alliance says on its website. 

The U.S. has shouldered an outsized share of the burden; total spending of all other allies is only about half of American expenditures on defence — “a constant, with variations, throughout the history of the alliance.”

Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Canada has provided more than $1.3 billion in military aid, including armoured vehicles, cannons, ammunition and eight Leopard II tanks. 

The documents say some NATO members are “concerned” that Canada has not increased the size of its battle group in Latvia, and also includes worries about a lack of Arctic capabilities and limited progress on modernizing Norad. 

That suggests the document, which is not dated but makes reference to events in February, predates President Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa in late March, when Canada promised some $14 billion in upgrades to the shared continental defence system. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2023.

The Canadian Press