Lori Idlout responds to Liberal’s plan for defence « Canada’s NDP
Member of Parliament Lori Idlout, NDP Defence Critic issued the following statement:
Canadians are united in standing up to Donald Trump and to making the necessary investments in defence that will help protect our sovereignty and our economy. We know that those investments – from boosting domestic production, supporting Canadian procurement, investing in arctic sovereignty and ensuring investments have dual-uses so that communities share in the benefits – will come with costs. The threats of our and our Arctic neighbour Greenland’s sovereignty by the US cannot be ignored. But boosting defence spending to 5% of Canada’s GDP is an unprecedented target which was never mentioned in the election campaign, and could impact the investments needed in other critical areas, from housing to health care to renewable energy.
We will be more thoroughly reviewing this strategy and consulting with stakeholders on its content. We are concerned that some elements come up short.
In particular it is unacceptable that Liberals drafted this strategy without meaningful consultation with Inuit. The government has pointed to non-rights holders and federal employees as the “Inuit partners” consulted on this announcement. According to the Nunavut Agreement, Nunavut Tunngavik and regional Inuit Associations represent Inuit rights holders and should be the consulting bodies on Arctic strategy.
Mark Carney has promised meaningful action on Arctic sovereignty and Arctic security. This announcement has no new spending or new initiatives to build the dual-use infrastructure that can expand our military posture while tackling the food security crisis in the North by creating necessary airports and roads.
The Strategy rightly identifies Canadian sovereignty requires our ownership and control of Intellectual Property, software, maintenance and sustainment systems for our military assets. That’s why New Democrats have already called on the Government of Canada to cancel our purchase of F-35 Fighter Jets and reject delivery of the initial tranche. F-35’s are notoriously maintenance-reliant. If Mark Carney caves to American pressure and continues with the acquisition of any F-35’s, he is giving President Trump the ability to ground our fighter jets by denying software updates or repairs.
New Democrats are concerned the Liberals are drastically increasing spending on efforts to increase Canadian Defence exports without any new guardrails.
When pressed by media, Prime Minister Mark Carney refused to outline any new guardrails to arms export permits. We have seen Canadian-made rifles flow through the United States into Russia, and Canadian electronic detonators flow through Kyrgyzstan turned into anti-tank mines for Russia. We have seen Canadian exports used by Israel in their siege on Gaza. We cannot have a Defence Industry Strategy without confronting Canada’s arms export loopholes.
Canadians are ready to step up against President Trump’s attacks on our sovereignty and the sovereignty of our allies. Canadians want a Defence Industrial Strategy that supports our allies and gives us independence from the United States.