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Canadian senator warns Canada’s defense spending timeline is ‘eternal’ relative to US

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Two bipartisan U.S. senators said they expect Canada and the United States to work collaboratively on common defense and border issues, but noted that Ottawa’s policies on military spending need to change to accelerate progress.

He speaks to Mercedes Stephenson of the Halifax International Security Forum in an interview that aired Sunday Western blocRepublican Senator James Risch of Idaho and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire played down concerns that incoming President-elect Donald Trump will punish Canada for things like trade if it does not ramp up defense spending.

But Risch noted that Washington is growing impatient with Canada’s progress in meeting NATO’s standard of spending at least 2 per cent on defence, which Ottawa says it plans to meet eight years from now.

“If Donald Trump were sitting here, you’d be giggling in 2032, because that’s so far away from what we’re dealing with in the world now,” he said.

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“This is eternity on the road for us. This must be done now.”


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Defense spending tops the agenda at the Halifax Security Forum


Risch said the U.S. interest is to ensure that the Arctic is kept secure so that threats do not attack through Canada — making joint defense commitments like NORAD vital.

“People in Canada certainly have to understand the threat that is coming at us from the north,” he said. “If they go after us…they’ll come after you (Canada) from the north, and we’ll be next.”

Both senators sit on the powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Risch currently serves as ranking member of the Republican minority. The Republican Party is scheduled to control the Senate in January after the US elections.

Canada is one of only eight members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that does not meet the alliance’s 2 percent defense spending standard. The updated defense policy forecast expects spending to rise from 1.37 percent of GDP currently to 1.76 percent by 2030.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged at a NATO summit last July that Canada’s defense spending would reach 2 per cent by 2032. However, the parliamentary budget officer said last month that the government’s plan to achieve this was unclear and based on “false” economic forecasts.

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The FSA report said Canada would have to nearly double its annual military spending to $81.9 billion from current levels to meet the NATO target — a difficult task for a government facing fiscal headwinds and new commitments to address Canadians’ costs of living.

At the opening of the Halifax forum on Friday, Defense Minister Bill Blair defended the defense spending timeline as “credible and verifiable” and that Canada is doing the work necessary to build up its military while looking for ways to “accelerate” its goals.


Trump’s criticism of NATO members who do not meet their spending commitments, calling them “delinquent” and indicating that he would not come to their aid in the event of an attack, has heightened the urgency of the issue. Matthew Whitaker, Trump’s pick as US ambassador to NATO, made similar comments.

Risch noted that he and Shaheen speak regularly with European NATO members who are meeting the spending target even though their economies are smaller than Canada’s.

“Canada will have to step up its efforts,” he said.

“It’s not easy. It’s not easy for us either. And it’s certainly not easy for a lot of those European countries. But NATO is the strongest and most successful military alliance in the history of the world. … We have a commitment to each other. And that commitment is today.” It is needed more than it has ever been needed.

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Canada’s defense spending must double to meet NATO targets: PBO


Shaheen said she had positive discussions with Blair in Halifax, and that Canada and the United States want to resolve defense issues together.

“I don’t see it that way,” she said when asked if Canada faced any danger from the Trump administration if it did not move forward more quickly.

“It is in our interest in the United States, it is in Canada’s interest, and it is in the interest of all NATO members to see that we remain strong because of the threats that we face.”

Risch added that although there is cooperation between the US and Canadian militaries and defense officials, “public policy in Canada must change on this matter or it will be a serious problem.”

The two senators, whose states border Canada, said Ottawa must do its part to address immigration concerns that are a top priority for the Trump administration.

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Tom Homan, Trump’s newly appointed “border official,” described the Canada-US border as a “severe national security vulnerability” that could be a “gateway” for terrorist suspects crossing into the United States.


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Trump border official focuses on Canadian side and says it ‘cannot be a gateway for terrorists’


Last month, Robert Garcia, chief patrol agent for the USBP — which oversees a portion of the border known as the Swanton Sector, which includes eastern Ontario, Quebec, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire — Agents said they were arrested Over 19,222 posts from 97 different countries since last October. That’s more than in the last 17 fiscal years combined, he said.

“I can tell you the northern border is a concern for us in New Hampshire,” Shaheen said, noting that the number of people crossing from Canada into the upper northeastern United States has increased “exponentially” in recent years.

“We have been working with Canadian officials and have seen some progress,” she said. “But this is something we have to work on, because… we want to maintain the longest border in the world (in a) secure way. So we need to work together to achieve that.”

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Although Risch said the northern border is “an issue that needs work,” the situation pales in comparison to the U.S.-Mexico border, which saw nearly 54,000 confrontations in September alone.

Although this number has decreased by 78% since last December, Trump has pledged to close the border and severely limit asylum applications, as well as mass deportations.

“Our problem is our southern border,” Resch said. “And by the way, that southern border is not only a problem for us, it’s a problem for you as well, because once they get into the United States, it’s relatively easy to cross (into Canada).”

“(Trump) will return to having closed borders on the southern border.”

&Copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.



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