Voyageur 101
Carney Pledges $500 Billion for Defence as Canada Tilts to Europe, and A Senate Bill Would Let Ottawa Seize Russian State Assets.
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Carney Pledges $500 Billion for Defence as Canada Tilts to Europe
PM Mark Carney announced to a Toronto summit on Saturday that Canada will spend half a trillion dollars on defence and security over the next decade, the headline figure inside a deliberate move away from the United States.
Speaking at the Global Progress Action Summit, Carney said Canada is joining Security Action for Europe, the EU's defence procurement initiative, and that Ottawa will reward companies that produce, buy and build in Canada. "We need to build new trade relationships in order to move from reliance to resilience," he said. The diagnosis came into sharper relief a moment later when he followed with "As the U.S. changes dramatically its policies, many of our former strengths have become our vulnerabilities."
Carney left the door open to "fortress North America in selected sectors" but warned that Ottawa planned to "invest heavily in new markets" if that route fails. He also took a small dig at Trump's recent "freebies" comment, letting the audience know that Canada "did say thank you."
For Canadians watching the file from abroad, this is the clearest signal yet that Ottawa is pricing in a smaller US relationship and starting the work of building elsewhere (Voyageur 96, 97).
Read more: The Globe and Mail
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A Senate Bill Would Let Ottawa Seize Russian State Assets
Senator Donna Dasko's Bill S-214 cleared the Senate's foreign affairs committee last week and is now headed to the House of Commons. The bill would let federal cabinet take possession of foreign state assets held in Canada when that state has committed grave breaches of international law. Russia is the named target, and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand's office has already endorsed "the intent."
About $185 million in Russian assets are frozen in Canada under existing sanctions. A separate $20 billion in Canadian-denominated Russian holdings is sitting with Euroclear, the Belgian clearinghouse where most ruble-and-bond business eventually settles. The World Bank figures that' Ukraine's reconstruction bill will be about US$588 billion, however, so even if Ottawa drained every Russian dollar inside the country, the gesture would be symbolic when measured against the cost of the rebuild.
Critics flag two risks. Canadian assets in Russia could face mirror-image confiscation in retaliation, and other authoritarian governments might decide that Canadian banks are not a wise place to invest their reserves.
Read more: The Globe and Mail