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Canada will spend an additional $8.1-billion on defence in the next five years but not meet its NATO spending targets and has no existing plans to do so, officials said while unveiling the country’s renewed defence policy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released the policy today at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario.
The policy, called Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence, culminates two years of review and consultation. It was first announced in the 2022 budget.
Under the new plan, the federal government says it will raise Canada’s defence spending from the current NATO estimate of 1.38 per cent of GDP to 1.76 per cent of GDP in 2029-30.
Officials at a technical briefing said there is no fixed date to hit NATO’s spending targets.
Full story by senior political reporter Marieke Walsh.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
Human-rights lawyers complain about late filing of evidence at foreign interference inquiry: Even though most of the in-camera interviews with witnesses were conducted between Feb. 28 and March 6, the summaries of those discussions are often uploaded late in the evening before government witnesses are scheduled to testify.
Bank of Canada expected to hold rates, but could signal policy shift: The next rate decision is on Wednesday. Until then, the question is how much Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem wants to tip his hand.
B.C. police seizures of medical opioids on the rise, causing concerns safer-supply pills being diverted: Health Canada data indicates police seizures of hydromorphone have climbed in British Columbia since the province moved to prescribe the opioid as an alternative to toxic, illicit drug.
Canada’s housing crisis poised to worsen without major reforms, RBC report says: The country needs to complete roughly 320,000 housing units annually from now until 2030, to meet the new demand that will arise over that period, according to RBC.
Ontario Premier tells LCBO to bring back paper bags in stores: Doug Ford, in a letter to the president and CEO of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, says families are already struggling to make ends meet and they should not face the additional cost of having to buy reusable bags or instead “openly” carry their alcohol in public.
Beneath ArriveCan: MPs want to know how a mobile app’s costs grew out of control. An abandoned house on an Ontario First Nation is an important stop in the search for answers.
TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES
“We cannot be at the mercy of decisions made without us in foreign capitals” – Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland at Canadian Forces Base Trenton, on an updated defence policy.
THIS AND THAT
Eclipsing cabinet ministers: City TV Toronto journalist Glen McGregor catches some cabinet ministers on Parliament Hill watching today’s eclipse.
Today in the Commons: Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, April. 8, accessible here. MPs are back at the Commons after a two-week break, and sitting through to a one-week break beginning on April 22.
Ministers on the Road: In Montreal and Niagara Falls, Ont., Innovation and Science Minister François-Philippe Champagne participated with Canadian astronauts Jeremy Hansen and David Saint-Jacques in events to highlight the total solar eclipse. Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada delivered remarks to an audience of food service industry professionals and businesses at Restaurants Canada’s RC Show in Toronto. In Yellowknife, Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, with Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson, delivered remarks and on how defence-policy update announced today will impact the North and Arctic.
Strong and Free and Broadbent Centre conferences: Major conferences on opposing ends of the political spectrum are scheduled for this week in Ottawa. The annual progress summit of the Broadbent Institute, an organization founded by Ed Broadbent, the former leader of the federal NDP, runs Wednesday to Friday. Speakers include current NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow. Also, the Canada Strong and Free Networking conference begins Wednesday, and runs through Saturday. Former British prime minister Boris Johnson is on the speakers list for the gathering held by the former Manning Centre organization, along with federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
At Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Justin Trudeau visited an air force training centre ahead of announcing the update to Canada’s defence policy.
LEADERS
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May participated in the House of Commons sitting.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh held a news conference ahead of Question Period.
No schedules released for Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet and Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre
THE DECIBEL
On today’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, Sean Silcoff of The Globe’s Report on Business talks about two Canadian companies in the sphere of using psychedelic drugs, like LSD and magic mushrooms, as treatments for mental-health conditions. The Decibel is here.
BOOKS
Former federal health minister Jane Philpott, also Indigenous services minister under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has a new book out that covers her life as a physician as well as a politician, prescribing a path ahead for reforming health care in Canada.
The book is Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada. Philpott, now dean of heath sciences and director of the Queen’s University medicine school, answered questions for Politics Briefing, including whether she would return to politics if Mr. Trudeau were not leading the Liberal party.
You write that your agent believed you had a book in you. What did you think? Why did you decide to write this book?
My head was full of ideas and facts about health that I had collected over several decades. But it was only in the last few years that I thought of organizing them and getting them on paper. During the pandemic, as access to care became so challenging, it became clearer than ever that we lacked a proper foundation for health care. We need to become a country with universal access to primary care. I became so determined to make it happen that the urgency of writing it down in a book was inescapable.
How did you go about getting Health for All done?
The book was entirely written on weekends and holidays. I would get up on those mornings by 7 a.m., make a pot of coffee, get in a comfy chair, then write for four or five hours. I set a goal to write 2,000 words every weekend – so with rewrites and editing it took well over a year. I loved those mornings of writing. I felt like a sculptor with a lump of clay that needed to be shaped and reshaped until I was satisfied.
Were you inspired by any other books similar to your book with its mix of memoir and policy discussion?
I love memoirs that direct the reader into reflections about history or policy. There’s a similar style to Samanatha Power’s Education of an Idealist. Or perhaps with Stephen King’s On Writing, you can see how he had to explain his origin story before he provided the content that was so practical. One of my all-time favourites is A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, which is an autobiography, but it includes so much more than his personal story.
What role do you think health care will play in the next federal election?
I’ll start by saying that housing and the affordability of nutritious food are fundamentally health policies, and clearly those matters will be front of mind in the next federal election. But I predict that health care is the sleeper issue that could turn the tide unexpectedly. Few things matter to people as much as the well-being of their families and access to care. If some party can convince Canadians that they have a plan and an unwavering determination to implement guaranteed access to primary care, that would be compelling.
You write that you don’t know if you’ll end up in politics again. Would you return to a Liberal Party not led by Justin Trudeau? (Newsletter note: In 2019, Philpott resigned from cabinet over the SNC-Lavalin affair, and was then expelled from the Liberal caucus. She ran as an independent in her riding and was defeated.)
I intend to spend the rest of my working days advancing the vision of health for all. I want to see a Canada where every person has a primary care home, and I am always evaluating where I can have the most impact. Right now, I have a fantastic job as dean of health sciences at Queen’s University. In that role, I’ve been able to support innovations that will positively change the future of health care. If a door ever opens up for me to return to politics, and it seems that I could have even more impact there, I would consider it. But for the foreseeable future, I’m committed to our work at Queen’s and thankful to be there.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
PUBLIC OPINION
Online harms bill: Most Canadians think the online harms bill should make porn sites verify users are 18 or older, a new poll says.
OPINION
Let the foreign interference inquiry do its job, Prime Minister
“No serious person contends that the Liberals formed government because of foreign interference. The Conservatives have not made such a claim. But Mr. Trudeau and others have wrongly brandished the conclusion that the overall outcome of the election was not swayed as a way of trying to refute the possibility that some ridings were affected. But Mr. Trudeau went further than that on Wednesday, asserting that no outcome in any individual race was changed, without providing any factual basis for that assertion.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
Canada’s housing crunch is hurting our labour markets
“There are so many downsides to the untenable prices in the Canadian housing market that it’s hard to keep up. But to add another one to the list: The negative effect on mobility, including the ability of people to move for work. Prohibitively expensive home prices, high interest rates and increasing rents are the antithesis to the movement of people. Many are stuck in this constipated housing market. If you have anything close to a decent spot, you’re not going anywhere. It’s a big part of what’s gumming up the system.” – Kelly Cryderman
Trudeau courageously sticks to the carbon tax
“If you believe that global warming caused by human activity poses a grave threat to our future (and you should), if you believe that Canada has an obligation to do its part in the fight to reduce carbon emissions (and you should), and if you agree with the slew of economists who insist carbon pricing is the most efficient way to reduce emissions (and you should), then you should support the carbon tax.” – John Ibbitson
Do Doug Ford and Pierre Poilievre get along?
“One reason I wanted to attend the Poilievre event in Mississauga was to ask him one question. I’ve been intrigued by the relationship that Doug Ford and Poilievre have — or perhaps more accurately don’t have. They seem to have so much in common, yet everyone you talk to says they really don’t like each other. Why would that be?” – Steve Paikin, TVO
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