Canada should increase its military budget by $75.3 billion over the next five years to meet NATO’s requirements to allocate 2% of the country’s GDP to defense. This was stated by the representative of the commission of the British Parliament in relation to the budget of Yves Giroud. Age Times.
According to Giroud’s calculations, the military budget will need to increase from $36.3 billion in fiscal 2022-2023 to $51 billion in 2026-2027 to reach the required level of spending.
At the same time, the parliamentarian concludes that such funding volume remains an “unreachable bar” for Canada, but expects the gap to “standard” to close within five years.
In 2021, the Canadian government spent about 1.36% of Canadian GDP on maintenance of the armed forces, the lowest level of spending among NATO members excluding Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain.
Former Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand started the fight against sexual crimes in the military. Following a study of the military situation, he vowed to “get to work” and take action, according to 48 recommendations made by former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbor.
Arbor conducted a study of the causes of harassment, sexual violence and misogyny in countries’ armed forces and concluded that the “closed culture of the Canadian military” was to blame.
The Arbor report makes 48 recommendations, including transferring all sexual assault investigations to the civil justice system, clearer definitions of harassment and misconduct, better training and recruitment, and examining whether existing military officer colleges should exist given the widespread harassment of students. found. .
Arbor also recommended that the military hire external HR consultants and give officers more opportunity to find solutions to problems using civilian technology.