Defence spending

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Our Federal Government says it’s going to increase military spending by $13.9 billion, but the new policy, titled “strong, secure, engaged” falls short of the NATO target and most of the cash won’t kick in for years.

Video on Canada’s National Defence web page says our forces are strong at home, secure in North America and engaged in the world. But analyst John Thompson says the military has been starving for 40 years and this money will only barely keep it alive. He says the biggest need is manpower and the Defence Minister says it’s coming, 5 000 more uniform troops, as well as new technology.

“It’s nice we’ve got new cyber warfare capacity and bright shiny drones but there’s other stuff we need.”

Thompson says Canada is the only G7 country with no attack helicopters and no self propelled artillery. He says we also need submarines and fighter jets.

Some of the money will be deployed immediately, much will be delayed until after the next election.