Ottawa’s 2021 Budget First Small Step in Long, Expensive Path to Upgrading North American Defences

Ottawa’s 2021 Budget First Small Step in Long, Expensive Path to Upgrading North American Defences
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland delivers the federal budget in the House of Commons as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks on in Ottawa on April 19, 2021. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
The Canadian Press
Updated:

OTTAWA—It was only a few lines in the federal budget, and the money involved represents a rounding error in the overall scheme of things.

For defence officials and experts who have been sounding the alarm about North America’s aging defences in an increasingly turbulent world, however, it represented an important step: the first real funding to update the North American Aerospace Defence Command.