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Government hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

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I have long said that you could fund the CAF to 4 percent of GDP, but we would still lag behind in NATO and be much the same where we are.

It's never the money, it's politics. It's procedures. It's the pork-barreling in our defence spending that makes us a paper tiger in NATO.

My only hope in all of this for the CAF and the GoC, whatever the political stripe that may be, is that it will rouse them out of the "Peace Dividend" slumber. The world has been unstable since 1945. We have used geography, proximity, and association as a Defence Policy ever since. ICBMs don't care how close to the U.S. or how far from Russia/China we are.

Don't give us a dime more, but let us spend money on defence like it matters. The fact we follow the same rules for purchasing a fighter aircraft as we do for buying office furniture for a Service Canada office is disgraceful. Don't treat defense procurement as a stimulus package for Canadian Industry. There I said it.

We spend so much money, time, and effort trying to get that money to stay in Canada; be it by awarding contracts to companies with no capability to produce items without first "retooling" and"developing the production lines", or by hamstringing perfectly competent and competitive bidders by forcing the project to be made in St. Margaret de Poutain de Champignon, QC because the ruling government either lost the seat in the election, or won it with promises.

We spend so much money and staff hours jumping through TBS regulations that are great for other departments, but are terrible for defence procurement. Some items you have to sole source, because there are technologies and capabilities no one else makes. By doing the bid process, you get companies clamoring for a project they can't deliver on, but because they tick the bright boxes on the score sheet....

I truly and honestly belief we need to split from PSPC and legislate that its not beholden to TBS, only to the PBO/PCO. The guiding principles of this new Defence Procurement department should be "Off the shelf, from somewhere else" if there isn't an industry in Canada.

BOOTFORGEN has demonstrated how well we do when we are able to actually get what we need, instead of lining the pockets of a Canadian company that got lucky.

That, but with tanks, fighters, ships, weapons systems....
 
Mind you, it would be interesting to see the sort of shopping list one could generate with an 80 billion+ budget.
Easy peasy - just take the coherent & comprehensive plan that's both attainable and understandable to all players that's in place for what Canada's military should be doing & how to evolve that reality, and implement it. Oh, wait ....
 
Mind you, it would be interesting to see the sort of shopping list one could generate with an 80 billion+ budget.
I have had that in my mind for a while. A true 2% of our GDP is not a small amount. A consistent 2% commitment not wasted could easily fund a very very capable modernized force with a lot more mass than Canada is used to having.

I am convinced that neither the CAF, GoC or the Canadian public truly realize the very real changes that would result from a multiple decade period of real sustained 2% GDP committed to the CAF.
 
I have had that in my mind for a while. A true 2% of our GDP is not a small amount. A consistent 2% commitment not wasted could easily fund a very very capable modernized force with a lot more mass than Canada is used to having.

I am convinced that neither the CAF, GoC or the Canadian public truly realize the very real changes that would result from a multiple decade period of real sustained 2% GDP committed to the CAF.
Honestly you guys probably need 3-5% for a few years to get the needed systems and infrastructure upgrades done. The 2% is a maintenance number.
 
The PBO weighs in:
Now to see if any party seriously puts any weight to it.


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Now that Trump has been elected and controls the Senate (and possibly the House), I wonder how long it will take before Justin decides to significantly increase our defence budget. I wouldn’t be surprised if an announcement is made soon saying that SK will be building our subs.
 
I wonder how long it will take before Justin decides to significantly increase our defence budget.

Nah, won't happen. He'll announce more green initative projects and demand industry lower emissions without affecting outputs.

Increasing our budget to 2% tomorrow won't have an affect on overall capabilities for decades. You still need people, places for them to live on bases, places to work, etc. We can only order so much new furniture on a yearly basis.
 
Nah, won't happen. He'll announce more green initative projects and demand industry lower emissions without affecting outputs.

Increasing our budget to 2% tomorrow won't have an affect on overall capabilities for decades. You still need people, places for them to live on bases, places to work, etc. We can only order so much new furniture on a yearly basis.
But does the 2% have a timeframe attached?

I thought the agreement was 2% of GDP on Defence (with some percentages within that for various things), not “2% by 20XX”.
 
Reassign/reclassify some of the 75,000+ public servants he added since 2015 and swing a portion of the current civil service $60B salary envelop and we’re at 2%+ easily… 👍🏼

Can we reemploy the in public sanitation and repair services ?

Our roads need work and the city's need some serious cleaning up.
 
Reassign/reclassify some of the 75,000+ public servants he added since 2015 and swing a portion of the current civil service $60B salary envelop and we’re at 2%+ easily… 👍🏼
But ..... but.....dental program? (weeping emoji here)
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But does the 2% have a timeframe attached?

I thought the agreement was 2% of GDP on Defence (with some percentages within that for various things), not “2% by 20XX”.
Actually it was. The 2% was stated at the Wales summit of 2014 where the spending was to grow to 2% "within a decade."

The time to pay the piper has come - unfortunately in our case its the Pied Piper whose been controlling the purse since then.

🍻
 
Actually it was. The 2% was stated at the Wales summit of 2014 where the spending was to grow to 2% "within a decade."

The time to pay the piper has come - unfortunately in our case its the Not Very Smart Pied Piper whose been controlling the purse since then.

🍻
FTFY - he doesn't think about the economy, or spending, or the budget....

You're welcome
 
Actually it was. The 2% was stated at the Wales summit of 2014 where the spending was to grow to 2% "within a decade."

The time to pay the piper has come - unfortunately in our case its the Pied Piper whose been controlling the purse since then.

🍻
Ah my mistake.
 
might be a good thing to come out of Trumps election. Not sure Trudeau will take it seriously though, he hasnt before. Of course it might depend on the message behind closed doors and the threat of trade actions
 
might be a good thing to come out of Trumps election. Not sure Trudeau will take it seriously though, he hasnt before. Of course it might depend on the message behind closed doors and the threat of trade actions
I think there’s going to be a huge amount of pressure on him by big business to increase defence spending if, for no other reason than to satisfy both Trump and NATO. That’s why I think he’ll make a decision soon on the subs. Optically it looks good and of course the LPC, if still in power (very unlikely) could continue kicking the can down the road and delay, delay, delay…unless forced to speed things up. If Trudeau’s government gets kicked out of office and Poilievre drags his heels on it then Justin will say “You shouldn’t have voted my government out…we would have taken care of it.”
 
I think a big takeaway from the US election is that the people really only care about what is in front of them, and right now it’s high prices and unaffordability. In the Canadian case, it would also include healthcare.

But, I would argue that even if Trump threatens to leave NATO and NORAD, Canadian defence and sovereignty wouldn’t be a big vote-changer. It would spark lots of articles and posts, but any of the major parties can probably slow-roll it and be politically fine.
 
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