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Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

Canada says it will look at increasing its defence spending and tacked on 10 more Russian names to an ever growing sanctions list.

By Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau
Mon., March 7, 2022

Riga, LATVIA—On the 13th day of the brutal Russian bid to claim Ukraine as its own, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is showing up at the Latvian battle group led by Canadian soldiers, waving the Maple Leaf and a vague hint at more money for the military.

Canada has been waving the NATO flag for nearly seven years in Latvia as a bulwark against Russia’s further incursions in Eastern Europe.

Canada stepped up to lead one of NATO’s four battle groups in 2015 — part of the defensive alliance’s display of strength and solidarity with weaker member states after Russia invaded Ukraine and seized the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Trudeau arrived in the Latvian capital late Monday after meetings in the U.K. with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Earlier Monday, faced with a seemingly unstoppable war in Ukraine, Trudeau said he will look at increasing Canada’s defence spending. Given world events, he said there are “certainly reflections to have.”

And Canada tacked on 10 more Russian names to an ever-growing sanctions list.

The latest round of sanctions includes names Trudeau said were identified by jailed Russian opposition leader and Putin nemesis Alexei Navalny.

However, on a day when Trudeau cited the new sanctions, and Johnson touted new measures meant to expose Russian property owners in his country, Rutte admitted sanctions are not working.

Yet they all called for more concerted international efforts over the long haul, including more economic measures and more humanitarian aid, with Johnson and Rutte divided over how quickly countries need to get off Russian oil and gas.

The 10 latest names on Canada’s target list do not include Roman Abramovich — a Russian billionaire Navalny has been flagging to Canada since at least 2017. Canada appears to have sanctioned about 20 of the 35 names on Navalny’s list.

The Conservative opposition says the Liberal government is not yet exerting maximum pressure on Putin, and should do more to bolster Canadian Forces, including by finally approving the purchase of fighter jets.

Foreign affairs critic Michael Chong said in an interview that Ottawa must still sanction “additional oligarchs close to President Putin who have significant assets in Canada.”

Abramovich owns more than a quarter of the public shares in steelmaking giant Evraz, which has operations in Alberta and Saskatchewan and has supplied most of the steel for the government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline project.

Evraz’s board of directors also includes two more Russians the U.S. government identified as “oligarchs” in 2019 — Aleksandr Abramov and Aleksandr Frolov — and its Canadian operations have received significant support from the federal government.

That includes at least $27 million in emergency wage subsidies during the pandemic, as well as $7 million through a fund meant to help heavy-polluters reduce emissions that cause climate change, according to the company’s most recent annual report.

In addition to upping defence spending, the Conservatives want NORAD’s early warning system upgraded, naval shipbuilding ramped up and Arctic security bolstered.

In London, Johnson sat down with Trudeau and Rutte at the Northolt airbase. Their morning meetings had a rushed feel, with Johnson starting to usher press out before Trudeau spoke. His office said later that the British PM couldn’t squeeze the full meeting in at 10 Downing Street because Johnson’s “diary” was so busy that day. The three leaders held an afternoon news conference at 10 Downing.

But before that Trudeau met with the Queen, saying she was “insightful” and they had a “useful, for me anyway, conversation about global affairs.”

Trudeau meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Tuesday in Latvia.

The prime minister will also meet with three Baltic leaders, the prime ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, in the Latvian capital of Riga.

The Liberals announced they would increase the 500 Canadian Forces in Latvia by another 460 troops. The Canadians are leading a multinational battle group, one of four that are part of NATO’s deployments in the region.

Another 3,400 Canadians could be deployed to the region in the months to come, on standby for NATO orders.

But Canada’s shipments of lethal aid to Ukraine were slow to come in the view of the Conservatives, and the Ukrainian Canadian community.

And suddenly Western allies are eyeing each other’s defence commitments.

At the Downing Street news conference, Rutte noted the Netherlands will increase its defence budget to close to two per cent of GDP. Germany has led the G7, and doubled its defence budget in the face of Putin’s invasion and threats. Johnson said the U.K. defence spending is about 2.4 per cent and declined to comment on Canada’s defence spending which is 1.4 per cent of GDP.

But Johnson didn’t hold back.

“What we can’t do, post the invasion of Ukraine is assume that we go back to a kind of status quo ante, a kind of new normalization in the way that we did after the … seizure of Crimea and the Donbas area,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to recognize that things have changed and that we need a new focus on security and I think that that is kind of increasingly understood by everybody.”

Trudeau stood by his British and Dutch counterparts and pledged Canada would do more.

He defended his government’s record, saying Ottawa is gradually increasing spending over the next decade by 70 per cent. Then Trudeau admitted more might be necessary.

“We also recognize that context is changing rapidly around the world and we need to make sure that women and men have certainty and our forces have all the equipment necessary to be able to stand strongly as we always have. As members of NATO. We will continue to look at what more we can do.”

The three leaders — Johnson, a conservative and Trudeau and Rutte, progressive liberals — in a joint statement said they “will continue to impose severe costs on Russia.”

Arriving for the news conference from Windsor Castle, Trudeau had to detour to enter Downing Street as loud so-called Freedom Convoy protesters bellowed from outside the gate. They carried signs marked “Tuck Frudeau” and “Free Tamara” (Lich).

Protester Jeff Wyatt who said he has no Canadian ties told the Star he came to stand up for Lich and others who were leading a “peaceful protest” worldwide against government “lies” about COVID-19 and what he called Trudeau’s “tyranny.”

Elsewhere in London, outside the Russian embassy, other protesters and passersby reflected on what they said was real tyranny — the Russian attack on Ukraine. “I think we should be as tough as possible to get this stopped, as tough as possible,” said protester Clive Martinez.
 
CTV reporting $8Billion, but "it won’t be allocated all in one year". If correct, disappointing, to say the least, and tone deaf on the part of the Liberals.

It’s nice of them to react with an ‘increased budget’ due to the whole Russia/Ukraine thing. Buuuttttt…

The devil is always in the details. We should wait for the details to be known before giving the GoC any sort of praise.


And we need to drastically tweak Public Works / Treasury Board involvement when it comes to procurement.

I don’t mind them being involved as far as enduring taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly, contracts are being written and signed ethically and legally, and fair competitions help ensure good value for taxpayer.

But we have to pull them out from being so involved in procurement, we don’t end up procuring.

Until we streamline some processes & have the synergies working together more efficiently, more money won’t help as much as everybody thinks it will.


My 0.02
 
The 'Money Shot' is quickly approaching.

Somehow I think no one is going to walk away even remotely satisfied from this encounter.
 
We can debate who has better kit but the ability to utilize the US manufacturing and supply chain with commonality of parts is something the Euros can't even approach to being on par with.
Even the US is producing some Euro kit under license because, objectively, there is some Euro kit that is really impressive.

(Naval Strike Missile is a good example.)


Agreed tho. The US is our next door neighbour, closest friend & family member, and war is a full time gig of theirs. Not taking advantage of their supply chains & manufacturing is just silly.
 
"While announcing the launch of a review of Canada’s defence policy, the budget promised $6.1-billion over five years in direct new spending by the Defence Department to increase the capabilities of the Canadian Armed Forces, with an additional $1.4-billion in annual spending on the armed forces after that."

That works out to be 1.22$billion/yr or LESS than inflation - basically a 5%/yr increase - a giant F-you in other words.

Edit: I wish that the US and NATO calls us out on this and totally belittles and humiliates us for this.
 
"While announcing the launch of a review of Canada’s defence policy, the budget promised $6.1-billion over five years in direct new spending by the Defence Department to increase the capabilities of the Canadian Armed Forces, with an additional $1.4-billion in annual spending on the armed forces after that."

That works out to be 1.22$billion/yr or LESS than inflation - basically a 5%/yr increase - a giant F-you in other words.

Edit: I wish that the US and NATO calls us out on this and totally belittles and humiliates us for this.
That 1.22$ billion/yr will most likely be the total all in cost to cover the daily expenses necessary to address the shortfall of 6,500 in personnel.
 
"While announcing the launch of a review of Canada’s defence policy, the budget promised $6.1-billion over five years in direct new spending by the Defence Department to increase the capabilities of the Canadian Armed Forces, with an additional $1.4-billion in annual spending on the armed forces after that."

That works out to be 1.22$billion/yr or LESS than inflation - basically a 5%/yr increase - a giant F-you in other words.

Edit: I wish that the US and NATO calls us out on this and totally belittles and humiliates us for this.

It really is time for them to insist up or out for us.
 
Even the US is producing some Euro kit under license because, objectively, there is some Euro kit that is really impressive.

(Naval Strike Missile is a good example.)


Agreed tho. The US is our next door neighbour, closest friend & family member, and war is a full time gig of theirs. Not taking advantage of their supply chains & manufacturing is just silly.

Exactly. Their manufacturing and supply chain is so good they are building other people's kit too, for themselves.

That right there is a war winning ability.
 
I strongly suspect that out year funding is going to be announced recurrently over the next year at times that are politically opportune. This is Act one, Scene one.
Don't hold your breath or bet your life on that assumption.
 
You guys know better than I- it’s part of why I love reading on this forum.

Is this increase an actual increase or with the incremental cost of EVERYTHING going up- is it actually even a change?

If ten pairs of boots were a hundred bucks and now they are 130- if we can still only afford ten pairs…have we done anything?

I ran into this this year planning my money for the area I’m running. There were large increases across the board- to produce the same/similar service, not even beginning to improve.

Like substantial increases in some areas.
 
So not even to 2% despite the passed motion in government- how the F does Canada even think they are a democratic national let alone relevant?
To be fair, I am not sure we have the capacity to spend even the modest increase we just received…
 
So not even to 2% despite the passed motion in government- how the F does Canada even think they are a democratic national let alone relevant?
We are not democratic in the sense we all get a say. Toronto and Quebec get the big say and peasants like us west of Ontario can damn well stop complaining and be good Canadians.
 
I think this just reaffirmed to NATO and the U.S. that we are not only a bad faith partner, but a no faith partner. In true Canadian fashion, we lined our own pockets at the expense of our friends and allies.

Honestly, I would love to see us booted from NATO and NORAD just to prove a point. How quickly would we need to spend money to cover those shortfalls? Hell of a lot more than 20-25 Billion a year.
 
I think this just reaffirmed to NATO and the U.S. that we are not only a bad faith partner, but a no faith partner. In true Canadian fashion, we lined our own pockets at the expense of our friends and allies.

Honestly, I would love to see us booted from NATO and NORAD just to prove a point. How quickly would we need to spend money to cover those shortfalls? Hell of a lot more than 20-25 Billion a year.
I would be ashame to be in front on any allied military right now. That places Canada on borrowed time, that’s all.
 
I think this just reaffirmed to NATO and the U.S. that we are not only a bad faith partner, but a no faith partner. In true Canadian fashion, we lined our own pockets at the expense of our friends and allies.

Honestly, I would love to see us booted from NATO and NORAD just to prove a point. How quickly would we need to spend money to cover those shortfalls? Hell of a lot more than 20-25 Billion a year.
I'd love it if Canada were called out very publicly by the US and major NATO nations - the UK, Germany etc. It would be worth the price of admission to see Justin scolded.
 
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