D
DEFENCE POLICY
by David Perry
30 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017 www.vanguardcanada.com
O
n the whole, the policy pro-
vides a surprisingly clear-
eyed outline of the desired
objectives for the Canadian
Armed Forces and real ad-
ditional resources to achieve them. If im-
plemented successfully, the new Trudeau
defence policy will fund a number of new
capability investments, top up the budgets
for many older projects that previously
lacked adequate funding, and promises
slight increases to the size of the defence
team and a number of positive changes to
defence human resource management.
Altogether, the new policy is quite a
pleasant surprise, especially given the Lib-
eral Party of Canada's 2015 campaign
platform and comments by Prime Min-
ister Trudeau in the weeks before its re-
lease. Having campaigned on pledges to
increase the Canadian military's involve-
ment in peacekeeping and reduce the
budget for fighters to reallocate the mon-
ey to other parts of the defence program,
the additional spending for new projects
is a significant departure from the cam-
paign. The infusion of several tens of bil-
lions in additional long term funding for
the defence budget is similarly surprising
after the Liberal party pledged only to
maintain spending, and the Prime Min-
ister's repeated statements that Canada's
defence contributions should not be
judged on budget alone.
The new policy is underwritten by a
new 20-year defence budget. As a result,
there will be a modest annual increase in
the defence budget of a few billion a year,
but a significant injection of new fund-
ing on a cash expenditure basis. In to-
Aer a lengthy period of
the most extensive public
consultation on Canadian
defence in a generation, the
Trudeau government
released its new defence
policy Strong, Secure,
Engaged this past June.
Strong Secure Engaged
SURPASSES EXPECTATIONS
