Freeland announces she'd meet NATO spending benchmark by 2027
Timeline is 3 years earlier than promise from Liberal leadership rival Carney
Chrystia Freeland is unveiling what is perhaps the most ambitious plan among Liberal leadership contenders for Canada to hit the NATO benchmark defence spending target of two per cent of gross domestic product.
The former deputy prime minister said she'd have the country meet the goal by 2027 — five years ahead of the federal government's stated plan.
And she said she would do it, among other things, by increasing the size of the military to 125,000 members from the current authorized strength of 101,500, and increasing the wages of full-time, regular troops by 50 per cent.
The announcement comes one day after Liberal leadership candidate and former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney pledged he would hit the target by 2030.
Karina Gould, the former Liberal House leader running for the party leadership, also pledged to hit the goal by 2027 on Thursday.
In a statement Thursday, Freeland said she would give the Armed Forces new capabilities, build made-in-Canada supply chains and reform procurement to get equipment delivered faster.
"The world has changed. We need defence spending now — not in the next decade," said Freeland, a reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plan to achieve the NATO target by 2032.
"We must quickly scale up to defend our sovereignty, meet our international commitments and support the brave men and women who serve in uniform."
Canada is planning to spend just over $33 billion on defence in 2024-25, roughly 1.37 per cent of GDP.
Freeland's last budget as finance minister projected military spending would rise by 30 per cent to just over $40 billion for the coming budget year — still a long way from the goal.
For Canada to hit the two per cent target, the federal government would have to invest $81.9 billion annually in defence, according to an analysis last fall by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
That calculation was made in response to Trudeau's pledge last summer to reach the NATO benchmark by 2032.
Part of the problem in meeting the target is that the Defence Department is not set up to spend that much money in a short period of time.
Freeland's strategy also envisions a shift in military procurement away from the United States toward a "buy Canadian, wherever possible" approach.
Her last budget promised to invest in new staff to deliver defence equipment projects — but funding for that plan does not kick in until 2025-26.
Procurement exemptions
As a way to speed up the process, however, Freeland recommends exempting defence procurement from Canadian International Trade Tribunal oversight and using what's known as the urgent operational requirement exemption.
That would effectively allow the defence department to get around some of the major competitive hurdles and declare specific equipment as necessities that need to be purchased immediately.
Such an extraordinary measure would remain in place until Canada reaches NATO's two per cent target. Freeland said.
Defence Minister Bill Blair had previously signalled his goal would be to hit the NATO target by 2027. But while calling the timeline "absolutely achievable," he has not explained how he would do that.
Pitch for integration in Washington
While both Freeland and Carney touted a pivot away from buying American defence products, Blair and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne were in Washington Thursday pitching deeper co-operation.
They had conversations with both members of the U.S. Congress and the defence industry during the visit where they highlighted the "remarkable integration" between the defence industrial base of Canada and the United States.
Blair said the ministers explained how tariffs "could easily shatter the important relationship that currently exists."
He said the meetings showed the lawmakers and defence industry representatives "remain firmly committed to full integration with Canadian industry and support."
Freeland pledged a faster recruitment strategy as part of her plan. The military, however, has struggled to reach its current authorized strength of 71,500 regular force and 30,000 reservists.
Former chief of defence staff and retired general Wayne Eyre blamed a glacial recruiting system that saw tens of thousands of Canadians apply to join, but less than 5,000 actually enrolled each year.
An internal defence department presentation from last fall, obtained by CBC News, shows that much of the overhaul of the recruiting system was being funded, not with new money, but by internal reallocation of financial resources. And some of the new recruiting measures were, at the time of the writing of the report last October, not funded at all.
The defence department was asked for comment on the presentation, but no one was immediately available to answer a series of questions.
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