Ottawa overestimating defence spending, will only spend 1.42% of GDP on military by 2030: PBO
Government says it will reach 1.76 per cent by 2030, but PBO estimates a gradual decline from a peak of 1.49 in 2025-2026
OTTAWA — On the eve of a major NATO summit, the federal budget watchdog says the government is overestimating defence spending and that Canada will be even further than expected from its 2 per cent military investment commitment by the end of the decade.
In a spending analysis quietly published Monday, Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux threw cold water on the Liberal government’s latest military spending projections, saying that they overstate how much the department will realistically spend by the end of the decade.
In a statement, Defence Minister Bill Blair’s director of communications Daniel Minden said the government “strongly disagrees” with Giroux’s projections and remains “confident” in its projections
The new PBO estimates come on the eve of a major NATO summit in Washington, D.C., set to begin on Tuesday.
Whereas the government says that it will be spending $54.9 billion in NATO-eligible military expenditures by 2029-2030, the PBO estimates that number will more likely be $52.2 billion.
Giroux also found that the government is overshooting how much of its gross domestic product (GDP) it will be spending on NATO-eligible defence expenditures by 2029-2030.
