Ottawa plans to spend $73 billion for defence in Budget 2025
Global News
The massive defence spending plan — which is light on specifics but presents hefty dollar figures — also hints at what's in the government's promised Defence Industrial Strategy.
The federal government unveiled plans Tuesday to shell out $73 billion for national defence by the end of the decade — a staggering sum as Canada positions itself to meet aggressive NATO spending commitments.
The massive defence spending plan — which is light on specifics but presents hefty dollar figures — also hints at what’s in the government’s promised Defence Industrial Strategy and even teases a new “sovereign space-launch capability.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s first budget touts a towering topline figure of $81.8 billion on a cash basis over five years to build up the Canadian Armed Forces.
That amount includes $9 billion in spending Prime Minister Mark Carney already announced in June of this year so that Canada can finally meet its NATO commitment of spending the equivalent of 2 per cent on GDP this year.
The 2025 budget claims Canada is already meeting a new, 1.5 per cent commitment under NATO — part of a much larger 5 per cent target, which Canada says it will meet by 2035.
That 1.5 per cent includes things that are defence-adjacent — such as spending by any level of government on emergency preparedness — while 3.5 per cent must be spent on core defence needs.
“The government expects that currently planned spending by federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments will meet this 1.5 per cent commitment,” the document asserts, without disclosing the government’s internal calculations.
“The budget will allow us to meet our target,” Champagne told a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday. “In the 1.5 per cent … I think for Canada, this is going to be a way for us to build infrastructure in the North that northern communities will welcome.”
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