Minister Blair wants to “move faster” to reach 2% of military spending

Photo: Spencer Colby La Presse canadienne Le Canada est l’un des huit pays membres de l’OTAN qui ne respectent pas le seuil de 2% du PIB consacré aux dépenses de défense fixé par l’alliance atlantique.

Faced with pressure from his American counterparts, National Defence Minister Bill Blair wants to “move faster” so that Canada can meet the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) target of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in military spending. Faced with a slow procurement system, he is looking for new strategies to get there, in addition to asking for help from Washington.

“One of the things I’m doing right now is going to the CEOs of big companies and telling them I want to do business differently with them because I need to be more efficient. “I have to go faster,” he said in an interview with Le Devoir at the Parliament in Ottawa.

Canada is one of eight NATO member countries that do not meet the threshold of 2% of GDP devoted to defence spending set by the Atlantic alliance. This summer, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to reaching this target in eight years, in 2032, a horizon considered much too distant for many allies, including the United States.

While in Canada, U.S. Sen. James Risch expressed Washington’s impatience with Canada’s slow pace of increasing its defence spending. “If Donald Trump were sitting here, you’d see him laughing his head off about 2032. It has to be better than that. It really, really has to be better than that,” the Idaho Republican said at the Halifax International Security Forum last week.

Minister Blair, who was also at the gathering of more than 300 industry delegates, admitted that his discussions with his American counterparts focused heavily on increasing military spending.

“The phrase I repeated this weekend is that they are pushing on a door that is already open. We want to do more. We have already agreed to the 2%. […] Now the question is how quickly can we do it,” he said, sitting in a conference room just outside the House of Commons.

However, increasing military spending is not easy, the minister said, explaining that industries also need additional resources to accelerate and increase production. The lead times for acquiring equipment from the United States are also significant.

“About 70% of everything I buy, I buy from the American military defense industry. […] I have to go through a foreign military sales program, and that requires congressional approval. “These steps slow us down,” he says.

Faced with red tape, the minister is now reaching out to the American defense industry and officials in Washington. “I turned to [my American counterparts] and said, ‘Help me. I want to move faster, but I need your help.’”

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A reform to come

Despite the discontent it arouses south of the border, the 2032 target remains “an honest estimate” of the time it will take to reach 2%, the minister argues. “We are not limited by our ambition. We are limited by the time it actually takes to acquire the [necessary military] capabilities,” he laments.

A report by the parliamentary defence committee, released in June, highlighted testimony from numerous experts who described the defence procurement process as “slow,” “fundamentally flawed,” “overly politicized” and “extremely bureaucratic.”

However, changes to the procurement process are expected to be announced in the coming months, Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said.

“We are currently working with other departments and agencies to review and reform all of our defence procurement processes so that we can better achieve our objectives,” he revealed during an appearance before the Standing Committee on National Defence on Thursday.

Defending without the United States ?

Criticism of Canada has been growing with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January. Earlier this year, Trump even suggested that he would not protect “rogue” NATO members who fail to meet the 2% target and that he would “encourage” aggressors like Russia to “do whatever they want.”

With his imminent return to the U.S. presidency, should Canada prepare to defend itself?? “Canada and the United States are working together to protect North America. “It's in the interests of both countries, and we both have a responsibility in this regard,” replied Minister Blair, who avoided commenting on Donald Trump's remarks.

The president-elect's shock statement nevertheless sends him the message that his future government will be “very serious” about increasing Canada's military spending.

“I listen very carefully when our neighbours say they need more from us,” says the defence minister.

The United States remains the largest defence spender, accounting for about two-thirds of NATO’s annual military spending in dollar terms, with an estimated budget of US$968 billion in 2024.

Earlier this year, Canada announced that it would invest $8.1 billion over the next five years to strengthen its national defence, and $73 billion over the next 20 years. The new investments will increase its current spending from 1.33% of GDP to 1.76% in 2029-30.

A Missing Timeline

Canada’s allies are not only criticizing the delay in reaching the 2% target; They also lament that Ottawa is one of the only members not to have presented a concrete plan to achieve this.

Earlier this year, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the Canadian government to provide a detailed timetable for meeting its defence spending commitment, to no avail.

Blair maintains that he is able to present numerous plans for the acquisition of equipment, such as combat ships and new multi-mission aircraft. “We know exactly when they are going to be delivered and we know how much they are going to cost,” he defends himself.

Ottawa is also planning to buy a dozen submarines, the purchase price of which should bring the country to the 2% target by 2032.

Producing a detailed timetable for the 2% cannot, however, be reduced to the purchase of equipment, since it is also necessary to take into account the capacities and production times of the military industries, he asserts.

“I’ll know more once I have the information from the industries. That’s why I’ve sent out requests for information globally. […] But then the next question is: how much does it cost? And more importantly, how long does it take to build? That’s part of the plan, too,” the minister said.

“So once we have that information from the industry, we’ll be able to present [a plan] clearly,” he continued.

A recent report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer found that Canada would need to double its defence budget by 2032-33 if it wants to meet its commitments.