Canada officialy hits NATO 2% GDP target (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 7 hours ago by CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca 2 points 35 minutes ago

Goal achieved from a bit of smoke and mirrors:

"The benchmark was partly achieved by an internal reorganization of the federal government, which has seen some agencies, such as the Canadian Coast Guard, moved under the auspices of the Defence Department and therefore counted toward the NATO target. It was also achieved through a substantial pay raise for members of the military and by pouring money into base infrastructure and overhaul."

[-] twopi@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 hours ago

It looks like the new target is 5%

[-] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 11 points 6 hours ago

More like 3% and another 2% is for infrastructure. You only need to pretend that that infrastructure is really badly needed for defense, which is rather easy for a lot of it. Like say those are not metro stations, they are bunkers....

[-] No_Maines_Land@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 hours ago

Metro stations are defense infrastructure even if they aren't bunkers. Public transit directly achieves Baseline Resilience Requirements 2 & 7. It indirectly achieves others.

NATO'S 7 baseline resilience requirements: https://www.cimic-coe.org/handbook-entries/welcome-to-the-cimic-handbook/vii-resilience/7-2-seven-baseline-requirements/

[-] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago

A lot of countries have used Subways as bomb shelters I know.

[-] Canconda@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 hours ago

Infrastructure = logistics = defense. Plenty of roads that need building in the north if we wanna be able to maintain a solid presence.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 hours ago

Northern roads are a tricky thing. Permafrost contains a lot of frost.

[-] Canconda@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 hours ago

They'll probably have to be gravel and maintained regularly.

[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 hours ago

Some modern subway stations in North America are so ridiculously deep, perhaps we could call them bomb shelters...

[-] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 hours ago

Ukraine has been using subway stations as bunkers for the entire war.

[-] kbal@fedia.io 2 points 5 hours ago

2% is quite a lot. 5% is madness. I hope that the costs of it start to become apparent to everyone and they reverse course well before they go that far.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 hours ago

Roadways are defence infrastructure.

Water is defence infrastructure.

Power is defence infrastructure.

Resilient rail is definitely defence infrastructure.

It's very easy to get that other 3% -- and actually get sovereign rail from coast to coast to coast at the same time, which we'd never get if it wasn't a defence project.