Carney to announce Canada will meet NATO spending target
PM to announce purchase of more drones, armoured vehicles, aircraft and underwater sensors
Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to announce that his government plans to meet the NATO benchmark target of two per cent of the country’s gross domestic product by the end of the current fiscal year in March, Radio-Canada has confirmed.
The prime minister will outline a pathway to the often-hyped two per cent goal in a speech in Toronto this morning, said the confidential source who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The Globe and Mail was the first to report the plan.
The source that spoke to Radio-Canada says the biggest element of Monday’s announcement will be the unveiling of a new defence industrial strategy, which will focus on meeting Canada’s military through homegrown production.
The prime minister is apparently set to announce the acquisition of more drones, armoured vehicles, aircraft and underwater sensors, which will aim to increase surveillance capabilities in the Arctic.
Coast Guard to be folded into DND
Military members are also expected to get a pay raise, which the Liberals promised in the last election campaign.
In addition, Carney is expected to announce that the Canadian Coast Guard will be folded entirely into the Department of National Defence — something other countries do. The coast guard is currently a special operating agency under the Fisheries Department with an annual budget of $2.5 billion.
Federal ministers have been quietly signalling the pathway to a two percent commitment for the last couple of weeks.
The former head of NATO, George Robertson, speaking on CBC’s Rosemary Baron Live on June 1, 2025, said Industry Minister Mélanie Joly had assured him that Canada would reach the alliance goal, which was first agreed upon in 2014, by the end of the year.
Last week, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Defence Minister David McGuinty signalled Carney would address Canada’s defence spending targets before the upcoming leaders’ summit in The Hague.
Canada under former prime minister Justin Trudeau faced regular criticism from allies for not meeting NATO’s current target of two per cent of GDP.
The dispute became public at last year’s leaders’ summit in Washington when members of the U.S. Congress from both sides of the aisle called out Canada for not having a plan to meet the goal, unlike all other allies.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: German, Norwegian officials urge Canada to join ‘familiar family’ in buying new submarines, CBC News
Denmark: Danish PM pledges to support Greenland against Trump pressure, Thomson Reuters
Finland: US, Norwegian forces in Lapland for rapid reinforcement exercise, The Independent Barents Observer
Iceland: Iceland’s FM announces defence review, calls revamped security policy ‘urgent’, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Preparing for trouble, Norway erects fence at exposed border sections, CBC News
Russia: Drone attack on Russian warplanes, including in Arctic, serious blow to strategic arsenal, The Associated Press
Sweden: Nordic-Baltic region joins forces around Sweden’s CV90, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: White House releases U.S. Arctic strategy implementation plan, Eye on the Arctic
