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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.
 
^^
Think of where the Navy/CCG/DFO fleets could have been if we kept St John Shipbuilding and used it as a base to implement and expand the NSP. I'd like to know who dropped the ball on this, the RCN, DND, TB, PMO? All of Canada?
the yard is still there and could be repurposed but I seem to recall a deal whereby the feds bailed them out but the yard was to close immediately on completion of the work underway. Very hazy memory, a lot of beer, a lot of whiskey and a lot of time has passed since then
 
the yard is still there and could be repurposed but I seem to recall a deal whereby the feds bailed them out but the yard was to close immediately on completion of the work underway. Very hazy memory, a lot of beer, a lot of whiskey and a lot of time has passed since then
Our office is discussing this article today. Here is my reply to one of our gang talking about "room for growth"

Quote “Considering we plan for ships to have a 30 year service life but then go on to drive them for half a century”

This is an unsustainable policy. You’d think that since we have spent all this money initiating the National Shipbuilding Strategy (or whatever its called now) that we’d plan for a 25-30 year lifecycle and forego the major refit at 20 years and just sell the bloody things and build new?



Anyone remember that place we poured billions into in the 80’s? Are we going to do that again?



View attachment 70080

I’ll just shut up now, and go back to grumbling.
Posted this a year ago regarding St John Shipbuilding
 
I had to double check to make sure the article wasn't from The Onion.

Good luck wringing any extra money from our current illustrious leader "Because they’re asking for more than we are able to give right now”
he will deliver. or at least he will provide a promise to deliver or at least to study the issue
 
he will deliver. or at least he will provide a promise to deliver or at least to study the issue
He probably won’t do Jack and Shit, but apparently Canada has committed to action.
He will probably blame the Minister if it goes down like a lead ballon.
 
How many of these are in service now? Any?

Maybe I’m cynical, but these are routine and while necessary, it comes across as similar to me announcing a purchase of new underwear if my wife asks me about our mutual fund growth over the last quarter. Necessary but…not something expected to impress people.

I had to chuckle at the part in the pic. The obsession with anything HQ lives on!! 🙂

View attachment 76409
The HQSS is big bulky and seems more suited to running a static camp (IMHO) but CA units have it in their hands. The depots are certainly full of spares.

No clue how well they are being recieved by the field force though.
 
Debt to GDP ratio we are similar to Greece - in fact we are higher than Greece.

What is NOT being talked about right now is the amount of federal income tax revenue that went last year, pre substantial interest rate hikes, compared to what will have to go this year, next year and the next few going forwards, to cover just the interest on the debt. Much like all the chatter about the average CDN needing to cut back on expenditures in order to deal with large mortgage payment increases, our Federal Government will be in the EXACT same situation going forwards. Which in turn means, either large cuts to services/programmes will occur, a substantial income tax increase is coming to the 60% of Canadians who actually pay income taxes.

Roughly 7.10$ out of every 100$ in income tax goes to servicing the interest on the debt today. Its safe to say that this number will be north of 8$ per 100 in 2023 and more than likely higher yet in 2024.

Further information of what we can expect here in the next 10yrs - alot of services will be cut or expect to be paying alot more in taxes (and as a result your standard of living falling accordingly) or a combination both - less services and a lower standard of living.

Here’s where 20 cents of every one of your tax dollars will go in 10 years​


 
alot of services will be cut or expect to be paying alot more in taxes (and as a result your standard of living falling accordingly)
Don't leave out the third option: more borrowing.

[Add: unlikely we'll get close to that prospective US benchmark of $0.20 of every tax dollar. The past few years Canada has either had an operating deficit or a surplus less than the cost of servicing debt, which means all or some of the debt cost is funded by borrowing, not tax dollars. I'll hazard a guess the US situation is the same - the cost of debt is covered by more borrowing, not tax dollars.]
 
Concerning but not surprising unfortunately. Also quite interesting as this article from the Atlantic Council posted on the Real Clear Defense website suggests that there could be a push by some countries at the July NATO Summit in Vilnius to RAISE the NATO spending target to 2.5% of GDP.

Acquiring the capabilities necessary for success in high-intensity warfare will require sustained higher levels of spending than NATO nations have undertaken since the end of the Cold War. To accomplish that objective, three initiatives should be agreed upon at the Vilnius summit.

First, NATO should agree that nations should spend at least 2.5 percent of GDP on defense instead of the 2-percent goal previously agreed. The United Kingdom has established such an aspiration, and Estonia has recommended such a requirement for all allies.74 While only the United States, Poland, and Greece currently meet the 2.5-percent target, a number of nations— including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, which have larger militaries—have increased, or set plans to increase, budgets.75 It will be important for those additional budgetary amounts to be utilized to meet the requirements necessary to achieve the objectives of the New NATO Force Model.
 

Meanwhile, at the Prime Minister's Office ;)

Sci Fi Lol GIF by Hallmark Gold Crown
 
Is anyone surprised?

Let's be completely honest with ourselves, people like Trudeau* look down on the military as a service, as well as people that tend to make up the membership of the military. Though they are smart enough to not say it out loud, they view us as the people too dumb to do anything else. Why waste money on defence when it can be spent enhancing the arts, or solving world hunger?

*I don't mean LPC, I mean the entire "upper" crust of Canada regardless of which colour they vote. It's not limited to just the Laurentians, or Bay St, it's the wealthy and university educated from coast to coast.
 
Is anyone surprised?

Let's be completely honest with ourselves, people like Trudeau* look down on the military as a service, as well as people that tend to make up the membership of the military. Though they are smart enough to not say it out loud, they view us as the people too dumb to do anything else. Why waste money on defence when it can be spent enhancing the arts, or solving world hunger?

*I don't mean LPC, I mean the entire "upper" crust of Canada regardless of which colour they vote. It's not limited to just the Laurentians, or Bay St, it's the wealthy and university educated from coast to coast.

Well....

I've never found an anti-CAF civilian amongst the 'elite' out this way. OTOH, they are very interested and grateful for our military members, based on what I've seen so far.

I've even bumped into a few bejillionaires with family members in the CAF, like JTF 2, RCAF, RCN and th'Army. Some even send their kids back to their countries of origin to do their national military service, like they did themselves, as a condition of citizenship/ the right to vote.

Now, does the CAF actually ever network with these people to build on this obvious strength of feeling?

No, not at all based on what I've seen. And every effort that I made, whilst serving, to try and do that has fallen upon deaf ears largely because IMHO: 'Stinkin' Civvies, what do they know?' type attitudes.

I mean, it's always easier to invite senior military folks like yourself to cocktail parties and dinners in an echo chamber fashion as it's less ego-threatening, and it might even be good for your (marginal) CAF career ;)
 
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