Canadian soldiers patrol past one of the satellite relay domes of the NORAD Shingle Point North Warning System facility in Yukon last year.Gavin John/The Globe and Mail
On Thursday, NATO announced that Canada’s military spending had finally hit the alliance’s target of 2 per cent of gross domestic product, a benchmark set by members more than a decade ago.
As The Globe’s senior parliamentary reporter Steven Chase writes, it’s a long-overdue accomplishment for Canada, which has lagged a NATO alliance spending threshold conceived by members in 2006 and then confirmed in 2014.
Whether they felt it was about time Canada hit its target or were concerned about additional spending, Globe readers had a lot of thoughts on the subject. There were more than 400 comments on the article (and counting). Here are some highlights.
Celebrating finally reaching the NATO goal
From user Myles Grant:
Good to see young able-bodied Canadians out on Arctic patrol, protecting their country, getting paid and getting a good workout in the process. I doubt we’ll ever get to the self-sufficient toughness of our northern Finnish neighbours, but we can work on it. And a year of military service right after high school wouldn't hurt our young people either. It has worked for Finland, no reason it couldn’t work for Canada as well.
From user Frederick Sagel:
This is why Mr. Carney is such an able prime minister. Neither Liberal or Conservative prime ministers of the past have been as capable as he is. Lester Pearson was probably the last really capable prime minister and Mr. Carney may well exceed his record. I feel we are in very capable hands.
Examining where the military funds go
From user From Sea to Sea:
Ultimately what matters is not how much is spent, but how it is spent.
Pay raises may attract recruits, but it costs a lot more to train, equip, and sustain them. Is the money there for that?
Infrastructure? Unless the CAF is fighting on Canadian soil, most infrastructure expenditures contribute little to operational capabilities. The exception is infrastructure that directly supports weapons systems, such as aircraft hangars, jetties for vessels, or forward operating bases in remote areas. And no, regional job creation does not improve your ability to defend your country.
The devil is in the details. Before Canadians start throwing rose petals at Mr. Carney’s feet, they should take the time to understand just how Canada’s defence capabilities are really improving, or not.
From user quenadien:
From a nadir of about one per cent of GDP under the Conservatives, our defence budget finally reaches two per cent, but there is still a long way to go, as most of the funds set aside are for procurement that has still to be delivered. From ships, icebreakers, fighter jets, army vehicles, recruitment, training, IT warfare, new naval and aviation bases, much has yet to be done. Canadians will have to fund this effort and accept an increase in taxes, ideally through an increase in consumption taxes such as GST.
From user Mike208:
I applaud the spending increase. Based on this increased spending, what Canadian military capability has been acquired or improved with this money? Do we have ammunition for a sustained period of fighting? Do we have any counter-drone technology? Do we have more soldiers, sailors or airmen? Do we have vehicles that work, ships that can fight or airplanes that can survive in modern air combat?
Concerns about Ottawa’s increased spending
From user Western Manitoulin Guy:
How are we going to find the money to spend on the military and other priorities? I am tired of hearing spending commitments but no way to pay for them.
I am all for sacrifices as I see the need right now living next to the United States. I am more than glad to pay additional taxes if need be. What I do not want to see is Canada continually on this debt spiral.
From user Nunya.Bizness:
Funding for more public transit would be nice.
From user Corey Zimmermann:
[Carney] just borrowed more money to make this happen. I’m glad it happened but he didn’t cut expenses or raise revenue. He just borrowed more. So let’s temper our excitement until he makes some difficult decisions. Another way of looking at it is no other PM was as reckless with borrowing.
From user app_79330618:
Totally fine with this. However, Liberals cant keep spending on everything a function of government is to make hard decisions and cut in other areas. If there are no consequences to overspending, then the central bank can print us all a million each, right?
Inflation does not go up with all this Liberal spending? Make the hard decision and cut somewhere else and transfer to defence, then I would 100-per-cent agree with this move.
From user HW01:
Meanwhile emergency room wait times in Ottawa are among the longest in Ontario, often exceeding 5–9 hours for initial assessment, with some total visits stretching beyond 13–15 hours. High patient volumes and overcrowding mean wait times are consistently high across the city.
So Dwight D. Eisenhower was spot on when he said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
Entries have been edited for length and clarity.