Fulfilling Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promise to dramatically ramp up Canada’s NATO commitments would require an additional $124 billion in annual defence spending, according to a new report from the Parliamentary Budget Office.Blacklock's Reporter says Carney pledged last June 25 to spend 5% of GDP on national defence by 2035, calling the goal a core responsibility of government. But budget analysts say cabinet has failed to provide the details needed to explain how such a massive increase would be achieved.“Despite indicating in Budget 2025 that accelerating spending will ‘put Canada on a pathway’ to meet the NATO 5% commitment by 2035, the government has not published supporting projection details,” the report stated, citing a lack of clear long-term defence spending plans.The report, Fiscal implications of meeting NATO’s 5% commitment, estimates defence spending would need to reach $159.1 billion annually by 2035. By comparison, the Department of National Defence spent about $35 billion last year, according to Public Accounts.Carney has framed the spending surge as necessary to address evolving global threats..“The new NATO targets of five percent of Gross Domestic Product are tailored to address new threats and challenges,” Carney said last June. “The capability required to meet this moment has been the driving factor for this moment.”He acknowledged the scale of the commitment while defending it as unavoidable.“We are protecting Canadians against new threats,” Carney told reporters. “I wished we didn’t have to but we do have to. It is our core responsibility.”Asked whether Canadians would support what defence experts describe as the largest military spending increase since the Second World War, Carney was confident.“Absolutely we can establish the public support for that,” he said.The Prime Minister also promised last June 9 that Canada would meet NATO’s 2% spending target by 2025, saying “aspiration without effort is just empty rhetoric.”“Canada will achieve NATO’s two percent of GDP target this year, half a decade ahead of schedule,” Carney said at the time, adding the government would further accelerate spending to meet new security demands.That target was not met by the Dec. 31 deadline. The defence department declined to comment..Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Thursday he had not yet reviewed the Budget Office report when questioned at the Commons finance committee.“It would be better for me to take a closer look and inform myself of what is in the Budget Officer’s report,” Champagne said. “I haven’t had a chance.”Champagne agreed Canada must boost defence spending in line with its allies, arguing the money could also stimulate the economy.“It is quite true Canada must make an increased effort like other NATO countries,” he said. “I hope it will be seen as an economic tool, leverage.”He pointed to small and medium-sized businesses entering the defence sector, including a Quebec bootmaker he highlighted during committee testimony.Champagne noted that G.A. Boulet Inc. of Saint-Tite, Que., a company with about 75 employees best known for cowboy boots, has also supplied footwear to the Canadian military.“If this small company in Québec that’s been there for decades can serve the military, so can everyone else,” he said.Federal records show Boulet Inc. received $6.6 million in defence department contracts for footwear between 2011 and 2014.
