'I hope the Canadians are watching': U.S. senator tees off on Canada's military spending
Exchange came up during confirmation hearing for next leader of North America's defence command
A senior U.S. military figure has agreed to have tough conversations with Canada about defence spending when he takes over a binational military body.
Lt.-Gen. Gregory Guillot was speaking during a U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday to confirm his nomination as the next head of North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).
His comments came after a Republican senator chastised, at length, what he called Canada's insufficient military spending and said he hoped there were Canadians watching the hearing.
"Can you commit to us to having those tough conversations with your Canadian counterparts?" Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska asked the nominee.
"Yes, senator, you can count on me to do that," Guillot replied.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as expected, Guillot will become commander of NORAD, the binational organization run by the U.S. and Canada that defends the continent's airspace.
He was nominated by U.S. President Joe Biden this spring, but it's unclear when he'll officially enter the new role. A Republican senator from Alabama is stalling new military confirmations over a dispute with Biden about abortion services for U.S. troops.
Latest in flurry of criticism aimed at Canada
The hearing came amid recent scrutiny in the United States over Canada's military spending, which is well below targets set by the NATO alliance.
A leaked document, published by the Washington Post, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told allies he has no intention of hitting the NATO commitment to spend two per cent of GDP.
Then came a Wall Street Journal editorial that cast Canada as a deadbeat that relies on others for its defence and doesn't deserve to be either in NATO or the G7.
Of the 30 NATO countries, Canada is among the lowest spenders as a share of its economy, at 1.29 per cent of GDP in 2022.
But in terms of actual dollars spent, Canada, as one of the wealthier countries in the alliance, is among the top spenders.
Canada has also increased its spending significantly in recent years, by about 40 per cent between 2014 and 2021, with another 40 per cent increase projected over the next four years, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. But that would still leave the country far short of the NATO target, at 1.59 per cent, in 2026-2027.
'I hope Canadians are watching'
In a recent NBC interview, Sullivan said the issue came up in every meeting during the recent NATO summit, with both Democrats and Republicans annoyed with Canada.
He tore into the northern neighbour during Wednesday's hearing. The Alaska senator began by saluting U.S. alliances, calling them a major strategic advantage.
Then he cautioned that he was going to say something of questionable politeness and submitted the Wall Street Journal editorial into the congressional record, reading out bits of it, including the headline calling Canada a "military free rider."
"All of [this] is incredibly disappointing," Sullivan told Guillot.
"I hope the Canadians are watching your confirmation hearing. … Can you commit to this committee that you can have discussions with the Canadians and say, 'Hey, look, when you're not supporting NATO, when you're not supporting missile defence for North America, it's actually harmful to the alliance'?
"Americans get frustrated when our allies don't pull their weight. And with regard to NATO, Canada's not even close to pulling its weight."
Guillot said he would have those conversations.
Canada, for its part, has not been ready to concede that it's not pulling its weight in NATO although sources told CBC News it has been trying to expand the definition of what can fall under the two per-cent benchmark to include spending on space, cyber and artificial intelligence.
At the alliance's summit earlier this month, Canadian officials told reporters that the two per cent metric wasn't raised with them at the meeting.
At the summit, Canada announced it would double its troop commitment to Latvia, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau highlighted the fact that, in absolute terms, the country spends more on defence than almost anyone.
"There's lots of different math that can be applied in different ways," he said after the summit.
Biden has so far stayed quiet
At Wednesday's hearing, Canada's spending also came up in relation to Arctic security. After Guillot noted that almost any major attack on the U.S. would pass through the Arctic and underlined the necessity of strong monitoring there, Sullivan again pointed to Canada.
"Hopefully, they'll pay for that," the Alaska senator said. "They're not very good about paying for missile defence either. Even though we protect the whole North American continent."
Canada has, in fact, not joined the U.S. missile defence system or paid for its interceptors. However, it does maintain radar that tracks incoming objects as part of that system.
Canada has, indeed, promised to spend $38.6 billion over 20 years to modernize its northern military infrastructure, from secure storage areas for fighter jets to new radar systems.
The U.S. has been pushing for an accelerated spending timetable.
But one military procurement expert said it's notable that Biden has avoided applying that pressure in public – unlike his predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
"They're not frustrated enough to be public about it in the way that past administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have done," said David Perry, president of the Calgary-based Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
"And if they aren't frustrated enough to be public about it, the evidence seems to show that the Canadian government isn't going to feel compelled to react to that in any particular way."
Washington's focus: Better intelligence over the Arctic
Perry said Washington, at this point, would just be happy to see Canada focus its spending on one or two areas where it can make a difference, with Arctic security top of that list.
Canadian officials have said they're limited in how fast they can accelerate the NORAD modernization plan, as some technology being purchased is still under development.
Perry said, however, that this reasoning is largely irrelevant as less than one-fifth of the spending, having to do with new radar, involves technology yet to be developed.
At the hearing Wednesday, Guillot said the U.S. military is worried about its adversaries' growing capabilities; in the past, NORAD's defence was primarily focused on intercontinental ballistic missiles, but, he said, it's now worried about a growing array of technologies.
He specifically mentioned hypersonic weapons. He called them the greatest military challenge the U.S. faces and said the U.S. is trying hard to keep up with its competitors, China and Russia.
Washington has been unnerved by increasingly sophisticated Chinese hypersonic missiles believed to be capable of evading U.S. radar and of striking positions thousands of kilometres away in the Pacific, currently as far as Hawaii.
"Our adversaries are growing at a very fast rate," Guillot said.
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