If I may, I'd like to answer that question, Mr. Chair.
In response to your question, the ambassador talked about financial, capability, and military contributions. I'd like to discuss the capability component in greater detail.
NATO has a capability planning process that is reviewed every four years. The last review was done in 2015, and the next review will begin in 2019.
The capability planning process has five steps. The first is to identify the threat and the environment. The second is to determine the requirements, with regard to the environment. Once the military requirements have been identified, targets are set for each nation to make sure the requirements are adequately met. Clearly, target setting takes into account the country's wealth, military capability, force size, and so forth. This very important element is considered in addition to the 2% metric. Canada and the 28 other NATO countries are subject to that process. In 2019, another process will be initiated.
It's worth noting that the current process began in 2015, following the events in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Therefore, collective defence became a higher priority, further increasing the requirements in terms of nation capability. For instance, Canada was given hundreds of targets that it must agree to and achieve within 10 to 20 years.