Canada's Budget 2026 Commits $451 Billion to Military Spending, Nearly Doubles CSIS Funding
Budget 2026, introduced by Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government, pledges $451 billion in core military spending over five years and nearly doubles the Canadian Security Intelligence Service budget. The measures aim to reduce reliance on foreign partners and align with NATO's new defence spending benchmarks.
The Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney has introduced Budget 2026, committing $451 billion to core military spending over the next five years. The budget also allocates significant new funding to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) as part of a broader effort to reduce Canada's reliance on foreign partners, particularly the United States.
Prime Minister Carney, who committed to boosting defence spending as part of his election platform, stated that Canada's strengths based on close ties to America have become weaknesses that must be corrected. The Liberal government previously announced that Canada hit the NATO target of two per cent of GDP on defence in 2025. Under Budget 2026, Canada has pledged to reach NATO's new benchmark of five per cent of GDP on defence-related spending by 2035.
Core defence spending and security-related funding are projected to reach 4.1 per cent of GDP in 2030-2031, representing roughly $700 billion over the five-year planning horizon.
Specific allocations in the budget include $2.3 billion for the Defence Drone Initiative, which will fund the acquisition and development of unmanned aerial systems for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the Canadian Coast Guard. Additionally, the budget commits $7.6 billion over five years to extend Operation Reassurance, which stations CAF personnel in Latvia on NATO's eastern flank.
Budget 2026 nearly doubles the CSIS budget to make the agency less reliant on foreign partners for intelligence sharing. CSIS will receive $6 billion over 10 years, starting in 2027, along with $579.5 million in ongoing funding. For comparison, the CSIS budget was approximately $700 million in 2024-25. The increased funding aims to better protect Canadians from terrorism, foreign interference, espionage, and other evolving threats.