Canada’s military facing ‘death spiral’ on recruitment, minister says

The Canadian Forces is facing “a death spiral” when it comes to recruitment, even as the government is “constrained” on more defence spending, Defence Minister Bill Blair says.

Blair made those remarks after speaking to a crowd attending the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence on Thursday, though stressed the government’s commitment to spend more on defence.

“If what you have been doing for decades is no longer working for you, you can’t just keep doing it,” he told Global News parliamentary bureau chief and The West Block host Mercedes Stephenson, who moderated a question-and-answer period with Blair.

“Over the past three years, more people have left than have entered. That is, frankly, a death spiral for the Canadian Armed Forces. We cannot afford to continue at that pace. We’ve got to do something differently.”

At the same time, Blair said calls to boost defence spending face challenges.

“We’re also constrained a little bit in our ability to make those dollar commitments by the current fiscal environment,” Blair said.

“The facts are before us, but at the same time, we have to spend more on defence.”

Blair’s comments come as NATO allies push Canada to meet the military alliance’s request for defence spending to be at least two per cent of GDP, and ahead of the federal budget set to come April 16.

When announcing the budget date this week, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland gave an idea of what challenges the government wants to address.

“Our economic plan is about building more homes, faster, making life more affordable, and creating more good jobs,” she said.

“This plan will unlock pathways to a good middle class life for the next generation — because Canada is stronger when everyone has an equal