The chair of the United States House intelligence committee says Canada needs to accelerate its defence spending targets, especially with its military in "desperate" need of investment.
"You're already past due," Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner told CTV's Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an exclusive Canadian broadcast interview airing Sunday.
NATO members agreed to the two per cent of GDP target at the Wales Summit a decade ago and pledged to meet that goal by this year. According to NATO figures, 23 of 32 member countries are on track to meet the pledge this year, while Canada has no plan to do so until 2032.
"The problem is that it's not just this two per cent number that was agreed to in Wales, it really is just the functioning capabilities of the overall military," Turner added. "I think even if you look at other metrics, the Canadian military needs desperate investment right now. It's military equipment, it's personnel, it's training."
Turner is in Montreal for a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and told Kapelos the defence spending target — and Canada's failure to meet it — will be "one of the biggest discussions" at the gathering.
"It was an agreement. It wasn't a policy debate," Turner said. "It wasn't something for them to go back to and decide later whether or not they would do it."
In an opinion piece for Newsweek last month, Turner wrote that "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, not (Donald) Trump, is a threat to the stability and success of NATO," despite media reports that some members of the military alliance are worried about what the former president's re-election could mean for the organization.
Trump has threatened on multiple occasions to pull the U.S. out of NATO, and said this summer he would allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack member countries if they don't meet their spending target. Turner insisted to Kapelos those comments were "clearly rhetorical."
"What you're seeing him saying is, 'this two per cent is important,'" Turner said. "It really does have consequences, and it has consequences across the alliance."
The congressman added the failure of members to meet the spending goal is "not just theoretical," but rather impedes the alliance's ability to really fulfil its collective deterrence purpose.
When asked whether Canada could face consequences for failing to meet its commitments, Turner said no, adding the "sad part" is the lack of repercussions means countries "have just decided" it's OK to fall short.
But, he said, he believes "there will be some difficulty in the future" for countries that don't meet the target.
"In part because I do think that two per cent number is going to be increased," Turner said.
"I think that as you look to Russia, as you look to the threat of China, as you look to what authoritarian countries are doing, the fact that North Korea, Iran, China and Russia are coordinating, collaborating, that that number is likely going to go up," he added.
At the NATO Leaders Summit in July, then-secretary general Jens Stoltenberg stated the two per cent of GDP figure is to become a floor, not a ceiling.
In a speech at the Halifax International Security Forum on Friday, Canadian Defence Minister Bill Blair said his government knows "we need to do more," and "we are going to make those investments."
"But getting there in a timely way is going to require cooperation, collaboration with our closest allies, with industry and some really hard work by the Canadian Armed Forces," he added.
When pressed on Canada's other contributions to NATO outside of its defence spending — for example its leadership with the mission in Latvia — as indicators of the country's commitment to the alliance, Turner said "every country has additional items that they do."
"Certainly the United States does, Germany does," he said. "But I think here for Canadians, they should look just to their own performance of their military. The Canadian military has, in so many areas, not just in the two per cent, areas where it's just not performing."
"I think there's just greatness that Canada can achieve, that is just being put off, that is not accomplished when you don't achieve what is that agreed-upon level of two per cent spending," he added.
