The U.S. ambassador to Canada says the world is closely watching Canada’s defence spending commitments, as the NATO alliance scrambles to shore up Ukraine’s supply of military goods.
In an interview that aired Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, David Cohen praised Canada’s “very significant” military contributions on a variety of fronts, including purchases of new equipment and its activity around Ukraine, the Arctic, NORAD and more. But he also applied some pressure when it comes to military spending.
“By the same token, I have been quite clear — and the United States has been quite clear — that NATO and the world is watching what Canada is doing with respect to its commitment…. It’s not something we’ve imposed on Canada. But the world is watching,” he told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.
Cohen noted that other countries belonging to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had either already reached the target of spending two per cent of GDP on defence or had a robust plan to do so.
“I don’t think Canada has any interest in being that kind of an outlier in NATO.”
WATCH | American ambassador discusses Canada’s military spending:
U.S. aid to Ukraine aid tied up in ‘messiness of democracy’: ambassador
10 hours ago
Duration 7:56
CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with David Cohen, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, about the stalled U.S. aid package to Ukraine and how desperately soldiers there say they need it.
But Cohen did make it clear that spending is only one factor when looking at contributions to defence.
“I think you have to look at more than any one single metric, and the percentage of Canada’s GDP that it spends on defence is just one metric,” he said.
In 2023, Canada invested an estimated 1.38 per cent of GDP in defence, placing it 25th out of 30 allies.
At the 2023 NATO leaders’ summit, Canada signed a joint communiqué committing allies to meeting the two per cent target.
That communiqué also acknowledged that in “many cases, expenditure beyond two per cent of GDP will be needed in order to remedy existing shortfalls and meet the requirements across all domains arising from a more contested security order.”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters, “We will be there to step up with our NATO partners. We will be there to continue to make sure that the women and men of the Canadian Armed Forces have the equipment they need and that our allies can count on us to continue to be there for them.”
Concerns over U.S. aid
Concerns over military spending and readiness are also tied to Western support for Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia two years ago. Countries in the NATO alliance have struggled to ramp up armament production and to provide Ukraine with timely aid.
Ukraine, which now appears to be on the defensive in the war, has articulated a wide range of needs.
“The need is the whole range of weapons and ammunition, starting with armoured vehicles and artillery shells,” Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, said in a separate interview on Rosemary Barton Live.
The United States, which has provided a major portion of the military and economic support to Ukraine so far, has yet to authorize additional aid.
Cohen expressed confidence that the U.S. would be able to pass a $60-billion US aid package for Ukraine, a legislative proposal that has been delayed and disrupted by ongoing negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.
“This is tied up in some of the messiness of democracy, and there are other issues at play,” he said, adding that “the package is going to pass.”
Deal is ‘stop-gap solution’
During a visit to Kyiv this weekend to mark the second anniversary of the war, Trudeau announced a $3-billion security assurance deal with Ukraine.
That deal can be seen as part of a “stop-gap solution” when it comes to support for Ukraine, as allies wait for American aid to be finalized, said Christian Leuprecht, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
But Leuprecht said Canada and others needed to commit to substantive aid for Ukraine and have a better plan for support.
“We need a Plan B, in case the Congress in the United States doesn’t come through, in case there’s a President Trump that gets elected and in case the Ukrainians can’t hold the defensive lines with which they’re currently struggling,” he said. “It’s a fight of wills, on both sides.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
