this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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[–] CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Goal achieved from a bit of smoke and mirrors:

"The benchmark was partly achieved by an internal reorganization of the federal government, which has seen some agencies, such as the Canadian Coast Guard, moved under the auspices of the Defence Department and therefore counted toward the NATO target. It was also achieved through a substantial pay raise for members of the military and by pouring money into base infrastructure and overhaul."

[–] festus@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

I mean to be fair, other countries, including the US, consider their coast guards to be part of their militaries. This doesn't seem deceptive to me. As for money spent on bases and pay raises, that seems like it should count.

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

My boy's wicked smaht

[–] twopi@lemmy.ca 6 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

It looks like the new target is 5%

[–] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 14 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

More like 3% and another 2% is for infrastructure. You only need to pretend that that infrastructure is really badly needed for defense, which is rather easy for a lot of it. Like say those are not metro stations, they are bunkers....

[–] No_Maines_Land@lemmy.ca 12 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Metro stations are defense infrastructure even if they aren't bunkers. Public transit directly achieves Baseline Resilience Requirements 2 & 7. It indirectly achieves others.

NATO'S 7 baseline resilience requirements: https://www.cimic-coe.org/handbook-entries/welcome-to-the-cimic-handbook/vii-resilience/7-2-seven-baseline-requirements/

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 hours ago

A lot of countries have used Subways as bomb shelters I know.

[–] Canconda@lemmy.ca 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Infrastructure = logistics = defense. Plenty of roads that need building in the north if we wanna be able to maintain a solid presence.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Northern roads are a tricky thing. Permafrost contains a lot of frost.

[–] Canconda@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 hours ago

They'll probably have to be gravel and maintained regularly.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Some modern subway stations in North America are so ridiculously deep, perhaps we could call them bomb shelters...

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 hours ago

Ukraine has been using subway stations as bunkers for the entire war.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 3 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

2% is quite a lot. 5% is madness. I hope that the costs of it start to become apparent to everyone and they reverse course well before they go that far.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 hours ago

Roadways are defence infrastructure.

Water is defence infrastructure.

Power is defence infrastructure.

Resilient rail is definitely defence infrastructure.

It's very easy to get that other 3% -- and actually get sovereign rail from coast to coast to coast at the same time, which we'd never get if it wasn't a defence project.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Do you like speaking russian?

[–] thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I suspect speaking American is a more proximate threat...

Have a look at a globe.