'Prisoners for a week:' Kananaskis G7 zone turned into armed camp
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Kevin Okabe and his wife Naoko Maebashi have seen it all before.
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The couple, who operate the Moose Family Kitchen in the village, were swept up in the 2002 G8 when they operated a souvenir shop in one of the hotels.
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'There's definitely more physical barriers this time,' said Okabe, who lives nearby.
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'The last time, we could walk down to the see the army camp (at the Mount Kidd campground) but you can't now.'
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On Thursday, that campground sat behind temporary steel fencing that concealed a military hub. A young Canadian soldier vetted traffic coming to its gates.
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'It's exciting to see what goes on. If the delegates need cigarettes or medication, we'll be the only game in town.'
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Next door to Okabe, Michelle Earls said business at her Kananaskis Outfitters store had dipped considerably weeks before the start of the summit, noting the village's hotels and area hiking trails shut down in late May.
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'We don't put the rental bikes out. Being closed weeks prior to (the summit) is a pretty big impact we didn't anticipate,' said Earls, who acknowledged they've been told they'll receive federal government compensation.
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But she said businesses this year are missing out on a U.S. tourist demographic that normally travels to the area in June, before the Canadian wave of visitors hits.
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Calgary Herald
2 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
How a multibillion dollar defence bank could help Canada increase its military spending
Article content The Defence, Security and Resilience Bank would be similar to Export Development Canada, a Crown corporation that provides financial and risk management services to Canadian exporters and investors, 'but way bigger,' Reed said. Article content It would offer large banks such as RBC and BMO credit guarantees 'that would loosen up capital so they could offer lines of credit, trade finance, you name it, but we can grow the industrial base a lot faster,' Reed said. Article content That would, in turn, speed up military procurement, he said. Article content 'It takes nine years to get a jet or seven years to get a shoulder-fired rocket launcher,' Reed said. 'It's because the industrial base just isn't big enough. It's been constrained. So, this would push liquidity into the commercial banks.' Article content Sovereign countries could also 'enhance procurement' by borrowing from the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank on the promise that they 'have to execute within two years,' Reed said. 'We want to foster that rapid-fire procurement that we know has been a problem for all member nations.' Article content Article content Right now, it takes 16 years for startups to go from selling the Department of National Defence on their products to procurement, he said. Article content 'Companies just can't live in that — they call that the Valley of Death,' Reed said. Article content 'That is a problem. If you want to invent a new bullet … in your garage, you're going to wait a long time.' Article content Rob Murray, NATO's inaugural head of innovation and a former U.K. army officer, started writing the blueprint for the bank about five years ago. Article content But, at the time, interest rates were flat, Russia hadn't launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, and U.S. President Donald Trump was not in power. Article content When the Ukraine war began, interest rates started climbing and people started recognizing 'threat levels are changing around the world,' Reed said. Article content Then Trump came to power in his second term and started 'forcing the hand of many NATO nations' to increase their defence spending, Reed said. Article content Article content Murray published his blueprint last December. Article content 'On the back of that he was invited down to brief the president elect down at Mar-a-Lago,' Reed said, 'and Rob's world just started to expand rapidly with proposed member nations seeking him out, asking how would this work? How can we get involved?' Article content Murray asked Reed to step in as the bank's president in early February 'to help stitch together the coalition of governments' needed to bring the idea to fruition. Article content 'Every European nation has been briefed,' Reed said. Article content 'And we did the briefing for Canada right after the election' with senior people in Prime Minister Mark Carney's office, the Privy Council Office, and departments including National Defence, Finance, Global Affairs and Treasury Board. Article content Reed also briefed officials in Singapore last week and plans to do the same in Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand this week. Article content 'We're trying to drive this around a consensus of a dozen anchor nations,' he said. Article content NATO figures from last June suggest Canada spent just 1.37 per cent of its GDP on defence in 2024. The Liberals have said they expect it to reach two per cent by 2030 'at the latest.' Article content But that's not fast enough for Trump, who has complained repeatedly about Canada piggybacking on the U.S. for military protection. Article content 'While I don't like what he's saying, I see this as an opportunity to get ourselves going,' Reed said. 'We have not done our job in a long time. We've not fulfilled our commitments, and this a kick in the pants to say who are we, and what do we stand for?' Article content Later this month, Reed expects NATO countries to accept a new spending minimum of 3.5 per cent of GDP for defence and 1.5 per cent for border security. Article content 'To go from our base today … it's another $100-110 billion a year to ramp up to that,' he said of Canada. 'And that's not in future dollars. That's in last year's dollars. So, any available mechanism that can help grow the industrial base and get them towards those NATO soon-to-be targets is going to be well received.' Article content Article content Founding members of the bank will start meeting in the fall to hammer out details. Reed anticipates standing up the bank next year. Article content 'I like the idea of another mechanism, and a very powerful and large one, and I think a very influential one, that can help us do more in the defence and security domain in Western democracies,' said retired general Rick Hillier, Canada's former top soldier, who has joined the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank's board of directors. Article content He predicts Canada is going to need 'a revolution in defence and security procurement' to solve the Canadian Forces' equipment woes. Article content More money could accelerate the acquisition of new aircraft, warships and submarines, he said. Article content 'The component I'm most worried about is the army,' Hillier said. 'The army is broken. We're down people. Our bases and our infrastructure are in very sad condition. And we lack every kind of capability that a force needs in the kind of areas where we would find ourselves fighting right now. If things go south in Eastern Europe and (Vladimir) Putin and Russia get into some kind of thing they can't extract themselves from and start heading into Lithuania and Latvia, where there are several thousand Canadians, our sons and daughters, we are ill-prepared to insure that they're ready to look after themselves.' Article content Article content The army lacks self-propelled artillery pieces, air defence systems, technology that can detect, track, and neutralize drones, and equipment to remove minefields, Hillier said. 'We need to focus a huge amount of that defence spend on the army.' Article content Canada has also been lagging in spending to defend our north, he said. 'We've got to know what's going on in the Arctic, to be able to see what's going on specifically, to be able to communicate what's going on and then to be able to respond to what's going, whether its air, land, or depending on the time of year, sea forces. Right now, we can only do a very small part of that.' Article content The country needs satellites and ultra-long endurance drones to cover the north, Hillier said. Bases should be built in Inuvik, Rankin Inlet, and Iqaluit, he said. 'Then you have to connect … those spots by upgrading the airfields across the north.'
