Budget Day speeches tend to be based on large excerpts from dry prose – partly statistics, partly financial slaps and partly political rally for the ruling party. What Treasury Secretary Chrystia Freeland delivered to the House of Commons on Thursday was a remarkably rigorous assessment of the turbulent world across Canada’s borders – alluding to the kind of sacrifices and choices that await. Her remarks centered on the Liberal government’s planned $ 8 billion increase in defense spending – $ 500 million of which has been earmarked to equip Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion. Her argument was tacit that sanctions on Russia – monetary measures that could destroy balance sheets and results – failed to stop the slaughter of innocent Ukrainians. “Russia has become an economic outcast, but the mutilated Buha residents, who were shot with their hands tied behind their backs, have shown us that this is not enough,” Freeland said, referring to the massacre of hundreds of civilians in a suburb. Kiev. a atrocity revealed after the recent withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian capital. In what bordered on a wartime speech, Freeland warned of the struggle ahead. “Putin and his henchmen are war criminals. The world’s democracies – including ours – can only be secure when the Russian tyrant and his armies are completely defeated,” he said. “The dictators of the world must never confuse our kindness with peace. We know that freedom does not come for free and that peace can only be secured by our readiness to fight for it.”

A “remarkable” change of tone

The Ukrainians are the ones fighting and dying, and Freeland has said it is in Canada’s “urgent national interest to ensure they have the missiles and the money they need to win.” A defense expert said Freeland’s choice of budget language – with its references to “free” people defeating totalitarian rulers – was “remarkable”. CLOCKS Canada raises defense spending, but misses NATO target:

Canada to boost defense spending by $ 8 billion, falling short of NATO target

The federal government will increase military spending by $ 8 billion over the next five years – falling short of NATO’s spending target of two percent of GDP – as its defense policy is revised. 1:54
“It’s an incredibly powerful language,” said Dave Perry, president of the Canadian Institute of Global Affairs, an Ottawa think tank that has occasionally hosted events funded by defense contractors. “It simply came to our notice then [U.S.] Chairman [Joe] Biden’s comment that [Russian President Vladimir] “Putin must leave.” If the talk was clear about Russia’s actions and the consequences of not supporting Ukraine, the budget itself would be less specific about what would follow for the Canadian military.

Advance payment to NATO

CBC News reported Wednesday that the Liberal government plans to spend an additional $ 8 billion on the Department of Defense over five years. That amount was confirmed on Thursday, but the lion’s share of the new money – $ 6.1 billion – appears to be an advance on future continental defense commitments and a reshaped, hardened NATO. According to officials, $ 6.1 billion is earmarked for the multiannual modernization of NORAD, the US-Canada Joint Air and Naval Defense Administration. Negotiations with Washington on this project have not yet been completed and the final price has not been settled. Another portion of the appropriation will be used for future NATO commitments – initiatives expected to be agreed upon when the leaders of the Western military alliance meet in Madrid in late June. While the budget pledges to equip Ukraine, it makes no mention of replenishing Canada’s arms stockpile to the war-torn Eastern European country and says nothing about filling emergency equipment gaps. Colonel Nikolaos Lalopoulos, a 408th Squadron Helicopter, mans a heavy Browning M2 .50 Caliber machine gun on a CH-146 Griffon training flight during the Common Multinational Readiness Center at Pacific 22 Mar, W 2 Mar Fort 2, 02 by my colleague Angela Gore, Canadian Armed Forces)
“There is a lot of ambiguity and a lack of details about the money that will go to our Department of Defense,” Perry said. “Many of them seem to be an IOU awaiting a review of defense policy.” Perry said he was concerned about the ambiguity of the plan because of the crisis in Ukraine and the fact that there are clear gaps in the Canadian military stockpile. “There is no clear indication that they are willing to replace what they took from the hands of our soldiers to put it in the hands of the Ukrainian soldiers,” he said. The federal budget has $ 100.5 million over six years to support cultural change and justice reform within the military. Another $ 144.3 million is earmarked for improving military health services. The budget also pledges a specific commitment of an additional $ 845 million to strengthen cyber defense at the Communications Security Foundation. Thursday’s budget also gave the Liberal government a commitment to improve the foreign minister’s ability to seize and dispose of assets confiscated by sanctioned Russian oligarchs. He stressed that Canada, together with international partners, formed the Task Force of Russian Elites, Plenipotentiaries and Oligarchs (REPO) to target “the assets and illicit profits of the Russian elite.”