Overview
- Ottawa raised defense spending roughly to 2 percent of GDP, about $63 billion a year, after a two-year surge that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte highlighted as a major contribution.
- Department of National Defence readiness figures show overall serviceability at about 61.3 percent against a 90 percent internal goal, with maritime at 59.6 percent, land at 51 percent and aerospace at 42.3 percent.
- Long procurement timelines mean key platforms remain far off: the River-class destroyer program projects final hulls around 2050, the national submarine competition has not selected a bidder, and the fighter decision remains unsettled.
- Personnel and governance shortfalls persist despite recent gains: the Auditor General found about 192,000 applications produced roughly 15,000 recruits from 2022–2025, while last year’s enrollment rose to 7,310 helped by a 20 percent pay raise and expanded military housing.
- Canada has also pledged to NATO’s Hague target for higher core and infrastructure spending by 2035, a move that reshapes alliance politics but will require sustained progress in recruitment, maintenance and procurement to convert money into usable forces.