Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland defends increased defence spending

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Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland defended the steep increase in defence spending outlined in the 2022 federal budget, citing the war in Ukraine and Canada’s responsibility toward its NATO allies.

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“It’s important for Canada to react,” Freeland said at an event in Montreal on April 11, and then went on to describe Vladimir Putin as the “world’s greatest threat” and his invasion of Ukraine as “a war for the entire democratic world.”

Freeland set aside $8 billion over five years for defence, one of the bigger line items in the budget. Combined with previously announced initiatives, Canada’s military spending is now set to double between 2016 and 2026, led by a new $6-billion contribution to the Canadian Armed Forces last week. That’s a significant shift from a few years ago, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government appeared to have little interest in reversing what the budget described as a “trend of lagging defences spending” that stretched back three decades.

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“Recent events require the government to reassess Canada’s role, priorities, and needs in the face of a changing world,” the 2022 budget said.

Freeland set aside $6.1 billion for Department of National Defence; $875.2 million to confront growing cybersecurity risks; and about $100 million to overhaul the military justice system and take other steps related to the “culture change” that Defence Minister Anita Anand promised last year when she apologized to soldiers who had been victims of sexual assault and harassment.

Still, some were disappointed by the increase, as it lifted Canada’s security budget only to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product, short of the NATO target of two per cent of GDP. Freeland indicated that more money could be coming, but not before the government takes time to think through the defence apparatus that’s needed in a world in which autocratic countries such as China and Russia appear set to reshape the world order. Freeland said that she has instructed Anand to quickly prepare a “practical strategy” to defend Canada and its international alliances.

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“It is important to me to have put money in the budget,” for defence, Freeland said. However, “when we have started to discuss a responsible fiscal approach,” Freeland continued, it’s prudent to “put money in the budget only when we have a plan to spend it. And that’s what we need to create right now.”

The risk of a direct conflict between Russia and Canada remains “very low,” according to Canada’s chief of the defence staff, General Wayne Eyre. Yet the Russian embassy has been vocal about Canada’s involvement in the war, calling Canada’s sanctions “unprecedentedly unfriendly” and “absurd.” The statement then added that Russia was fighting “neither Ukraine [n]or Ukrainians” but instead “conducting a special military operation to denazify Ukraine,” a characterization that most analysts describe as propaganda.

“I am very, very, very aware that the Ukrainian soldiers are the ones ready to die for this war, which is really a war for the entire democratic world,” Freeland said. “So, it’s in our national interest … directly in our national interest to help them.”

• Email: mcoulton@postmedia.com | Twitter: marisacoulton