Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

BUDGET 2022

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP wants Liberals to live up to NATO defence spending obligations

Apr 8, 2022 | 4:59 PM

KAMLOOPS — MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Frank Caputo is in France for the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

CFJC Today reached out to Caputo for his reaction to the Federal Budget, which was announced on Thursday.

The budget was highlighted by significant spending by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government and supported by the NDP as part of the confidence and supply agreement put into place last month. That agreement has been widely panned by the Conservatives, as they’re concerned that continued spending will put the country into more debt.

“At some point, someone is going to have to pay for our financial promises,” Caputo says, via Zoom. “My exhortation to government is to think about getting back to balance. This is a government that, I believe it was back in 2015 that said a balanced budget would be set in stone by 2019, and we’re really far from it. My overarching caution to government is to rein in spending so that future generations aren’t going to be plagued by debt.”

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However, there is one area that Caputo did want to see more money allocated. In 2006, NATO Defence Ministers agreed to spend two per cent of their country’s Gross Domestic Product on defence. NATO estimates Canada only spent 1.36 per cent of the GDP on defence in 2021.

“We really have a two-pronged responsibility when it comes to defence spending. First, it relates to our obligation to spend two per cent of our GDP on defence, as we’ve promised. Secondly, as a nation, Canada has to be able to defend its own sovereignty. If you look at our Arctic sovereignty, that’s an area of key vulnerability. Canada has one ice breaker. As I understand it, that ice breaker is unarmed. Russia has 40. We often forget how close Russia is to us in the Arctic, and if recent events have taught us anything, it’s that we shouldn’t take anything for granted when it comes to our international security”