How will Canada reach its new defence spending commitments?
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The NATO summit wrapped up Wednesday with major concessions from alliance countries to U.S. demands to further hike military spending.
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Here is a rundown of what happened and what it means.
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What did Canada agree to?
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Canada has signed on to the NATO pledge to increase defence spending to 5 per cent of annual GDP by 2035.
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That means that Canadians at that point will be spending $150 billion annually on defence and security.
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The NATO plan involves investing 3.5 per cent of GDP into core military needs, which includes armaments and equipment. Another 1.5 per cent will be spent on related infrastructure, cyber defence and security.
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The spending hike is a direct result of ongoing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump who floated the idea in January that alliance countries need to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence.
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Trump has repeatedly focused his ire on a number of nations, including Canada, claiming they are taking advantage of the U.S. by not spending enough on their militaries.
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The spending boost announced by NATO could also prove to be a big winner for the American economy. The U.S. is the world's largest arms manufacturer and such massive increases in spending on defence equipment could mean significantly more business and American jobs.
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Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that Canada should have no problem reaching the 1.5 per cent infrastructure portion by concentrating on projects that are already under way or currently being planned. That would include the development of the mining and stockpiling of critical minerals, an initiative that could see Canada becoming a trusted supplier to western nations for such material.
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'A little less than a third of that overall number is spending on things that quite frankly we're already doing to build the resilience of our economy,' Carney told CNN. 'So, it would be domestic resilience, it would be defending the areas that are important to defend, but also supporting critical minerals development.'
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The landlord status of former housing minister Ahmed Hussen prompted critical media coverage in 2023 , when Postmedia reported that while he was housing minister he rented out two condos. Within months, former prime minister Justin Trudeau removed Hussen as housing minister. He was replaced by Sean Fraser. It was good optics for Trudeau to pick a new housing minister who wasn't a landlord because, according to data compiled by Davide Mastracci , one third of all Liberal cabinet ministers have made significant earnings from investment properties. Michael McDonald, former head of UBC's Centre for Applied Ethics, says it's important to question the motivations of cabinet ministers and MPs who earn money through real estate, especially those with multiple properties. They can be in potentially serious conflicts of interest. This focus on politicians who own multiple properties comes at a contentious time — when 30 per cent of all Canadian properties are now owned by investors . 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As Robertson and Ottawa take on an affordability problem that has grown to crisis levels under the decade-old Liberal reign, it's difficult to tell whether Robertson is in a conflict of interest. More specifics are necessary. But it is crucial for voters to know how much all politicians own in property and other investments, so we can make informed judgments about whether they are serving us or themselves. dtodd@
