The upcoming federal budget is not expected to commit to a broad increase in military spending, say several defence sources.
In fact, newly tabled fiscal planning documents suggest overall spending on the military could to shrink by almost $400 million in the coming year.
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to maintain the former Conservative government’s defence spending levels and increase funding in 2017, as laid out in last year’s federal budget.
His government has been under pressure from allies to hike what it spends on defence, with both the United States and Britain asking Canada to aim for the NATO spending benchmark of two per cent of GDP.
The demands have become particularly strident in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks last November, which killed 130 people.
Preliminary budget estimates for the coming year show the military is expected to end the year with a budget of just over $19 billion, but planned spending for fiscal 2016-17 amounts to $18.64 billion.
National Defence routinely goes back and tops up its budget later in the year, but the amounts vary depending on what is going on in the world.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has denied there are broad-based spending cuts in the works, citing a Liberal promise to stick with planned annual increases through a budgetary mechanism known as the defence escalator.
He said Tuesday that the difference between the actual spending and the forecast for next year relates to a series of one-time expenses that National Defence incurred in 2015-16 that won’t be repeated.
“This is not a reduction” in the overall budget, Sajjan insisted. “We are committed to the planned increases and the promises we made during the campaign are going to be kept.”
Documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act show those annual two per cent increases don’t keep up with inflation and have been more than offset by the previous Harper government’s earlier deficit spending cuts ...
