Are we truly ‘laggards’ in spending?

There has been a steady drum beat of late wherein all the usual suspects have been echoing their age-old chorus that Canada must increase its defence spending drastically. Their hook, of course, is that global security has been drastically eroded following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked an eight-month, ongoing Israeli military intervention in Gaza. To fuel the debate in Canada, United States lawmakers recently signed a petition decrying Canada as “laggards” when it comes to defence spending. In a May 23 letter signed by a bipartisan group of 21 American senators, they urged Canada to meet the NATO alliance's collective goal of member states spending two per cent of their gross domestic product on national defence. For the record, Canada currently spends $26.9-billion per year on defence, which amounts to roughly 1.33 per cent of our GDP. In terms of real dollars spent, that expenditure ranks Canada sixth among the 32 NATO member states, and—believe it or not—14th in the world. Not bad for a supposedly peacekeeping nation. For Canada to comply with the two per cent GDP goal, we would need to increase the annual defence budget by $20.1-billion to a whopping $47-billion. On June 5, former U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft was in Toronto to attend the C.D. Howe Institute's annual Directors' Dinner. She, too, weighed in on the “two per cent of GDP on defence spending” message, only she included both a timeline and a warning. "The bottom line is that Canada needs to step up,” stated Craft. "Canada needs to spend more on its own defence, and more to help Ukraine." She urged that Canada spend at least the two per cent of GDP on defence as early as 2024. In other words, immediately. Craft's advice to those in attendance was curt: "So, I come to you today with a simple message: Buckle up and get ready—because Trump is coming back." The part that I cannot fathom is that among all of these Canadians and American stakeholders clamouring for Canada to spend more on defence, no one is even discussing what they want that money spent on. Canada already wastes a boatload of money on botched, delayed, and overpriced procurement projects. If it was increased capability in terms of weapons and warriors, Canada could field a far-better, more-effective fighting force by simply buying proven weapons off the shelf. That is also not something that lends itself to a quick fix. Sure, Canada could agree to suddenly boost the budget by $20-billion, but the truth is that our woefully understrength Canadian Armed Forces cannot absorb additional personnel at that rate. Nor do we currently have enough trained personnel left in the ranks to operate the current worn-out vehicle, aircraft, and maritime fleets. You could spend a wad of cash on recruiting ads, but the truth is that last year, 71,000 citizens applied to enlist, and the overworked recruiting centres could only process 4,500 files. If no one seemingly cares about what Canada actually spends the money on—just so long as it is defence related—here is a quick fix. Incorporate the Coast Guard as the fourth service branch of the CAF in the same way that it is part of the U.S. military, and add that cost to the defence budget. Convert the Royal Canadian Mounted Police back into a para-military police force—even if in name only—similar to the French National Gendarmerie or the Italian Carabinieri, and add that budget to the total. Finally, take all health benefit costs associated with caring for Canada's veterans and label that the cost of defending Canada. If these pundits simply want the accounting ledger to meet some arbitrary percentage of a fluctuating GDP amount, then get creative with the accounting. Should one actually want defence dollars to purchase real military capability, that will be the subject of another column. Scott Taylor is the editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine. The Hill Times

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Are we truly ‘laggards’ in spending?

Among all of these stakeholders clamouring for Canada to spend more on defence, no one is even discussing what they want that money spent on

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