Ottawa counts 7,378 Coast Guard employees toward NATO defence spending targets

Thousands of Canadian Coast Guard employees, including dozens of executives, are now being counted under Canada's defence department as Ottawa works to meet NATO military spending commitments, despite the agency remaining civilian and its vessels unarmed.Blacklock's Reporter says documents submitted to the Senate fisheries committee confirm the federal government transferred 7,378 employees from Fisheries and Oceans Canada to the Department of National Defence in September 2025.The move also shifted the Coast Guard's $2.4 billion budget, including pension and employee benefit costs, into the federal government's calculations of national defence spending.“A senator asked for a breakdown on the total number of employees affected by the transfer of the Canadian Coast Guard to the Department of National Defence,” officials wrote in a submission titled Follow-Ups From Department Officials.“Prior to the transfer, the Department of Fisheries’ total employees including the Canadian Coast Guard was 16,010 including 282 executives.”The September 2, 2025 transfer included 6,867 Coast Guard employees, among them 66 executives, along with 439 Fisheries Department employees and six executives who provided support services to the agency.The changes reduced the Fisheries Department's workforce to 8,704 employees, including 210 executives.Although the Coast Guard now falls under the Department of National Defence, its civilian mandate has not changed, and its ships remain unarmed.The decision has raised questions about whether transferring an existing civilian agency into the defence portfolio should allow Ottawa to count its operating costs toward NATO military spending commitments.Parliamentary Budget Officer Annette Ryan is conducting an independent examination of the federal government's calculations.On August 24, Ryan requested detailed information from the Department of National Defence explaining how Ottawa calculated its current and projected military expenditures.The request sought “a detailed breakdown of the inputs, constituent elements and calculation steps involved in arriving at the department’s latest internal calculation of the Government of Canada’s total actual and projected military expenditures.”.National Defence responded on September 2, and a report from the Parliamentary Budget Office is pending.The Coast Guard's new departmental status also came under scrutiny during an October 6 meeting of the House of Commons government operations committee.Conservative MP Richard Bragdon questioned Coast Guard Deputy Commissioner Robert Wight about why the agency's spending was being classified as defence expenditure when its operations remain largely unchanged.“If the Coast Guard remains civilian, an unarmed organization, how is its spending being counted toward military defence spending?” Bragdon asked.“I will not opine on the accounting rules for NATO,” Wight replied.Bragdon also pressed officials on whether Coast Guard vessels had been equipped with military weapons following the transfer.“Has defence-related equipment such as weapons been added to the vessels?” he asked.“Not weapons, defensive or offensive,” Wight responded.“But we have added communications equipment and are looking at such things as drones and other technology.”Wight told MPs the Coast Guard continues to perform its existing duties, including contributing to Canada's maritime surveillance and security capabilities.“We contribute to the marine domain awareness picture for Canada,” he said.The agency's fleet remains focused on civilian operations, including maritime safety, search and rescue, icebreaking and environmental response.However, officials are considering adding drones and other technology to improve surveillance capabilities.The transfer allows the federal government to include Coast Guard expenditures in its NATO defence spending calculations without necessarily requiring equivalent new spending on military personnel, ships or weapons.Whether all those expenditures qualify under NATO's accounting rules remains a question under examination by the Parliamentary Budget Office.The pending review is expected to provide further details about how Ottawa is calculating its defence spending commitments and how much of the reported total comes from existing government programs transferred into the defence portfolio.

Ottawa counts 7,378 Coast Guard employees toward NATO defence spending targets

Related Stories

Corb Lund disputes Smith’s account of Water Not Coal petition meeting

EXCLUSIVE: Dominion Society calls for 'removal of millions' of foreigners to save Canada

SCUM OF THE EARTH: Some of the most infamous names taken off California's death row

Justin Trudeau joins Oxford University as distinguished fellow