Federal government to offer NATO a 'timeline' for boosting defence spending

Stung by allies' persistent criticism of its defence spending, the federal government is expected to unveil a timeline on Thursday to meet NATO's military investment benchmark of two per cent of alliance members' gross domestic product, a senior Canadian official said.

The official, speaking on background with Canadian journalists on Wednesday, offered nothing specific and would only say that the timeline will be presented at the close of the ongoing NATO leaders' summit in Washington.

The Liberal government has been under rising pressure — internationally and more recently at home — to offer allies some kind of plan for accelerating its defence spending.

Speaking before a NATO forum late Wednesday, Defence Minister Bill Blair wouldn't say that Canada will present NATO with a complete plan.

"I'm hoping over the next few days that we'll be able to articulate for our [NATO] colleagues a credible and verifiable path for Canada and the investments we have to make," he said.

In the days before the summit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a series of high-level meetings with the U.S. business community and top lawmakers from both American parties to sound out the depths of American frustration.

The senior Canadian official said Canada's failure to meet the two per cent target has not come up in closed-door NATO meetings so far.

But the topic has been coming up in official Washington circles.

"Canada announced in the last couple days they won't be ponying up," Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said — unprompted — at a Hudson Institute forum this week.

"They're not going to do their two per cent. Why? They have the safety and security of being on our border and don't have to worry about that. That's shameful. If you're going to be a member nation, you have to do your part."

Johnson did not meet with Trudeau this week.

Republican U.S. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell did hear the prime minister out and said he was unconvinced. 

In a post on X late Tuesday, McConnell said that while shared values and close economic ties have been the basis of the U.S.-Canada relationship, "it's time for our northern ally to invest seriously in the hard power required to help preserve prosperity and security across NATO."

Canada currently has a plan to get its military spending up to 1.76 per cent of GDP.