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Canada’s defence spending falls short of NATO target, new PBO report finds

Ottawa (Ontario), June 9, 2022

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) today released an independent forecast of the military expenditures needed for Canada to meet the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) 2% Defence Spending Target.

Despite the significant increase in military spending between 2014 and 2021, the PBO estimates that the federal government would need to spend an additional $75.3 billion over the next five years in order for Canada to reach the 2% of GDP benchmark suggested by NATO.

In 2006, NATO members agreed to the policy goal of setting their annual defence spending to at least 2% of GDP.

Based on information provided by the Government, the report forecasts that Canada’s total military expenditures will increase from $36.3 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year to approximately $51.0 billion in 2026-27.

“Based on our analysis, the target of 2% of GDP remains out of reach over the medium term,” said Yves Giroux, PBO. “However, we project that the gap between military expenditures as a percentage of GDP and the 2% benchmark will decrease over the next five fiscal years.”

Quote

Based on our analysis, the target of 2% of GDP remains out of reach over the medium term. However, we project that the gap between military expenditures as a percentage of GDP and the 2% benchmark will decrease over the next five fiscal years.

Publication

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ann\u00e9es."}}]},"updated_at":"2022-06-09T12:57:04.000000Z","type":"RP","slug":"RP-2223-010-S--canada-military-expenditure-nato-2-spending-target--depenses-militaires-canada-objectif-depenses-2-otan","permalinks":{"en":{"website":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/en\/publications\/RP-2223-010-S--canada-military-expenditure-nato-2-spending-target--depenses-militaires-canada-objectif-depenses-2-otan","preview":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/en\/publications\/RP-2223-010-S--canada-military-expenditure-nato-2-spending-target--depenses-militaires-canada-objectif-depenses-2-otan"},"fr":{"website":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/fr\/publications\/RP-2223-010-S--canada-military-expenditure-nato-2-spending-target--depenses-militaires-canada-objectif-depenses-2-otan","preview":"https:\/\/www.pbo-dpb.ca\/fr\/publications\/RP-2223-010-S--canada-military-expenditure-nato-2-spending-target--depenses-militaires-canada-objectif-depenses-2-otan"}},"artifacts":{"main":{"en":{"public":"https:\/\/distribution-a617274656661637473.pbo-dpb.ca\/2e61c150ee17ee7fc0594b3c01632c13ffb4dcb4d848b9f259a81a318d997a3c"},"fr":{"public":"https:\/\/distribution-a617274656661637473.pbo-dpb.ca\/34d3ab70d07fa45f516c877d503828c9fab929979f8ddf46bb3c7ad9b88cd43b"}}},"coverpages":{"distribution":{"fr":{"small":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/b45eb52d7b3f5b398a4d61ecdca80fa10423edac818a1da3bd2a9d212779cb68","large":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/3f4442f91547517aa48ec24442c5943b52a97be65006958ea80b12c6de406549","h150_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/c54db1f9243dc0872658757f7e3757e1883ca8a94de78f791e7068b5d1e6ce05","h150_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/8710683ab3bbe7fd1a75ce4cadd6c0cd0e717153f51662c201740b38fc739b0e","h300_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/97ae06aa108d4ba6f50ffe2c9b13acc5bce2731d1095d081f6b4c4b285139ac2","h300_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/0fb8bbbea182f3955f9239bb0963945f0cebff0d7460d67b27f33f93407937d6","h600_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/41281c757e0680d3e5221ee6f0fad8348f886d0ad728dc335eeff93eccbacfc6","h600_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/5f0fdee57ca74f30de8b2e30dd6e6d45d2a56edb2fd153a58073aff620a0bf58"},"en":{"small":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/c788da5d2bb543ced323da099020225e90ce90fca725065357cd76f763e4f400","large":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/1745d0de29b9617a851984ecff09813d6971202d0f24661f903ab38377564f4f","h150_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/54aa25e87e0cd674e5c2c42f3365200b9779d7a97706653d781be9778cad7281","h150_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/9221998b3c2a3a02b22b1e4d369503b88b6b52a0b53c04814a65ad03b083a13d","h300_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/4af9ddba54730a9cab8dd6d8cf093258bb1783999cdff98a2746712de3bdff37","h300_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/07d1706d6b4447bb643cb980302b1588c92656927c26bd1ed3b3a3fbe3e35101","h600_png_optimized":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/0fdb6f74ea215eef165064291fd989f6bdd8b3cc43eb1bfddddc5f884d7511bb","h600_webp":"https:\/\/distribution-i696d61676573.pbo-dpb.ca\/6f181ccd51594ec6a8973b639fddfe446fa41fdb89be9bd13068c1d242eddfbb"}}},"quotes":[{"id":62,"created_at":"2022-06-08T10:40:11-04:00","updated_at":"2022-06-08T10:40:11-04:00","content_en":"Based 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