Canada Vows More NATO Spending, Plans $1.5B for Ukraine

June 11 ------ Canada will hit NATO’s defense spending threshold of two percent this year, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, noting that the US’ northern neighbor would rather spend more money on the safety of its citizens, rather than sending its loonies and toonies south of the border. The expanded budget would also greatly increase aid to Ukraine, all pending parliament’s approval. “I am announcing today that Canada will achieve NATO’s two percent target this year, half a decade ahead of schedule,” Carney said during a speech at the University of Toronto. “The threats that Canada faces are multiplying.”

As part of the expanded spending laid out in the proposed budget, there is a 2.1 billion CAD ($1.5 billion) line item for “military aid to Ukraine and to expand defense partnerships.”

Over the weekend, Ottawa had announced the allotment of aid for Ukraine amounting to about $25.5 million. At the 28th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (also known as the Ramstein Group), Canadian Defense Minister David McGuinty announced that 30 million CAD (about US$21.9 million) is slated for armored vehicles, and another 5 million CAD (US$3.6 million) will go towards electronic warfare kits from Canadian defense firms.

Looking at the average defense expenditures of each allied nation as a percent of GDP in 2024, Canada came in close to last, at 1.4 percent, ahead only of Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain, each at 1.3 percent of GDP. The largest contributors in the 32-nation pact in 2024 were Poland at 4.0 percent, and Estonia and the US at 3.4 percent. The US defense budget that year made up 66 percent of total NATO spending.

US President Donald Trump has called on NATO members to boost their contributions, and while Carney said he was pleased to do that in order “to protect Canadians, not to satisfy NATO accountants,” he also shot back at Trump, who has levied stiff tariffs on Canadian imports and insulted their sovereignty, floating the idea of bringing in Canada as the “51st state.”

US-Canadian relations have been on ice ever since, with Canadians jeering the US national anthem at hockey games, boycotting American liquor, and severely curtailing their vacation and shopping trips south of the border. As just one example, Jay Peak Resort in Vermont, which sits right on the border and is a popular weekend destination for Montrealers, especially, said it saw its summer bookings slide by more than 70 percent this year. When contacted by the resort’s administration, the survey’s Canadian respondents said the number-one reason for staying away was the Americans’ affront to their sovereignty. Some 90 percent of Canadians live within 150 miles of the US.

“The United States is beginning to monetize its hegemony: charging for access to its markets and reducing its (relative) contributions to our collective security,” Carney said of Trump’s trade war. “We should no longer send three quarters of our defense capital spending to America,” said the prime minister, whose Liberal Party won a shocking, come-from-behind victory over Conservatives at the polls shortly after Trump’s anti-Canadian screeds.

He further warned that Ottawa had “been jolted awake by new threats to our security and sovereignty” including from Russia and China. “In a darker, more competitive world, Canadian leadership will be defined not just by the strength of our values, but also by the value of our strength,” Carney said. In April, AFP noted, only 22 of its 32 members hit the two-percent spending target according to a NATO statement.

Source: kyivpost.com