Canada reviewing defence spending ‘top to bottom’ as NATO eyes 5%: minister

David McGuinty said the federal government will have more to say "very soon" about its alliance spending commitments and will be "making announcements in this regard."

Ottawa is reviewing its defence spending plans “from top to bottom,” Defence Minister David McGuinty said Thursday, as Canada comes under pressure from allies to ramp up spending to levels not seen since the height of the Cold War.

McGuinty said the federal government will have more to say “very soon” about its alliance spending commitments and will be “making announcements in this regard.”

“Canada is revisiting all of its expenditures presently, from top to bottom,” he told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“Just recently, our prime minister announced a $6 billion new effort to secure our Arctic, Canada’s Arctic. So we’re working very hard now with colleagues to implement a series of changes. We’ll have much more to say about that financially in very short order.”

McGuinty is in Belgium taking part in the NATO defence ministers’ meeting, the last major NATO meeting ahead of the leaders’ summit later this month — where members are expected to agree to increase their defence spending targets.

Defence ministers are meeting to draw up “capability targets” — basically shopping lists itemizing the kinds of arms the 32 member nations need to buy.

The lists of priority purchases include air and missile defence systems, artillery, ammunition and drones.

“Today we decide on the capability targets. From there, we will assess the gaps we have, not only to be able to defend ourselves today, but also three, five, seven years from now,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said.