In the 2022 budget, tabled on April 7 of that year, six weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Trudeau government announced it would undertake a “swift“ defence policy review.
On April 8 of this year – 732 days later – the government published the results of that review under the title Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence. A new definition of swift was thus born.
Much has been already written about Our North, Strong and Free. Its sensible emphasis on threats to, and investments in, Canada’s Arctic and Northern defence has been noted.
The government pledged to increase defence funding to 1.76 per cent of gross domestic product by 2029-30 from an abysmal 1.33 per cent today. While this keeps Canada well below the NATO target of two per cent – a level to which Ottawa has agreed twice in the past 10 years – it is still more than many expected.
It could, however, also be read as a firm commitment not to meet our commitments.
The undertaking to conduct and publish four-year reviews of both national security and defence policy has been applauded, while the shopping list of new equipment that the Canadian Armed Forces will buy has been discussed.
What is no less important, however, are the public administration innovations one can find within the pages of Our North, Strong and Free. Three chief ones come to mind.
The first we can call the “in and out play.” The new policy commits an additional $8.1 billion to the defence budget (on an accrual basis) over the next five........