Canada’s new top soldier says ‘absolutely possible’ to accelerate defence spending timeline

Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan says 'it's absolutely possible' for Canada to reach the 2 per cent GDP defence spending target before 2032.

Canada’s new chief of the defence staff says there are “absolutely” ways the federal government could speed up its defence-spending timeline to meet its NATO commitments sooner than the current 2032 target.

“It’s absolutely possible, and this is what we have been working on since I’ve come on board,” Gen. Jennie Carignan said in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday.

Canada is one of the few NATO countries that has yet to meet the alliance’s decade-old agreed-upon goal to spend two per cent of GDP on defence. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged this summer to meet the target by 2032, eight years after the original deadline.

The new chief of the defence staff — who officially took on the job last July — said she and her team have analyzed the federal government’s spending commitments “to ensure that we could bring in capabilities and the spending earlier,” before inflation makes some procurement more expensive.

According to NATO’s most recent figures, Canada was projected to spend 1.37 per cent of GDP on defence in 2024.

“This is a very simple fact,” she said. “The faster we can tap into the investments and the two per cent investments, the faster we can work on the transformation and modernization that we need to do.”

When asked whether she’s laid out a plan to the government on how to speed up the spending, Carignan said yes, though by how much, she said it’s “hard to tell.”

“We have a few unknowns in terms of costing, because the work is not all finalized,” she said. “But again, we’re going to have to work on a few horizons.”

“There are capabilities that the technology is not ready, so it will need to be planned in the longer term,” she added. “So we’re going to be working on various horizons to make sure that what we put forward can actually happen within those objectives.”

Military collaboration ‘very solid’ despite Trump comments: Carignan

The re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has added a new sense of urgency, considering the commander-in-chief’s at-times perilous comments about NATO.

Trump has threatened on multiple occasions to pull the U.S. out of the alliance, and said last summer he would withhold American protections and allow an attacking Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to member countries if they don’t meet their spending target.

And earlier this month, Trump said he was prepared to use “economic force” to annex Canada.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he believes the minimum NATO spending should be five per cent, rather than two per cent.

Many Canadian and American politicians have also commented in recent months that the country’s lagging contributions on defence will likely become a priority, once again, for the U.S. president.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she believes meeting the defence spending target sooner is among one of the ways Canada can hope to stave off Trump’s threat of levying significant tariffs on Canadian imports.

And Ontario Premier Doug Ford — currently chair of the Council of the Federation of Canada’s premiers — said his fellow provincial leaders are united in pushing for Canada to meet its NATO defence spending targets ahead of schedule.

When asked whether she believes Trump’s comments about NATO jeopardize the alliance, Carignan said, “The military-to-military collaboration is very solid.”

“So collectively as NATO colleagues on the military side, we rely a lot on each other’s partnership and support, so to me, this is not a source of great concern,” she said.

Pressed on the political implications, Carignan said Canada will be “ready to react to any change.”

You can watch Carignan’s full interview in the video player at the top of this article.