Canadian arms exports grew to a total value of more than $20 billion in sales over the past 16 years, peaking at $2 billion in 2012 alone under the former Conservative government, federal reports show.

With the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau under pressure to toughen up a Commons bill that would allow Canada to join the 2013 UN Arms Trade Treaty, the latest arms data for 2016 has spurred the NDP and outside experts into reiterating calls for greater control over Canadian arms sales abroad.

From $433 million in Canadian military arms and technology exports in 1999, to shipments of everything from high-powered .50 calibre sniper rifles and armoured vehicles, Canadian sales made their first big leap in 2002, following the September, 2001 Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in the United States.

Canadian exports jumped from $477 million in 2000 — excluding exports to the U.S. — to $678 million in 2002 and $723.5 million in 2003, the federal government reports on exports of military goods show.

Papers that accompany the annual export lists explain that arms exports from Canada to the U.S. are excluded from the reporting system due to mutual military import and export agreements but are “roughly estimated to account for over half of Canada’s exports of military goods and technology each year.”

The military hardware and technology exports dropped to $322 million by 2005 — double that once U.S. business is included — and began climbing again in the year after the election of Stephen Harper’s first government in 2006.

The exports grew to $634,542 in 2011, the year Harper and his Conservatives won their first and only majority government, and reached a high for of $1 billion in 2012 – $2 billion including exports to the U.S.

That year, Canadian arms exports to Saudi Arabia also peaked, at $422 million in sales that included $399 million worth of armoured vehicles and $21 million in small arms rifles and larger .50 calibre rifles.

Canadian military exports to Saudi Arabia have come under heavy criticism over the past two years, following the Saudi military’s intervention in a civil war in Yemen that broke out after a civic uprising against that country’s government.

The scrutiny increased over the past year following the Liberal government’s approval of a $15-billion sale of armoured military vehicles in 2015. The deal had been reached under the Harper government.

NDP MP Hélène Laverdière, representing her party on a Commons committee studying the bill that would take Canada into the international Arms Trade Treaty, says the growth in Canada’s arms trade over the past 16 years demonstrates the need to establish an oversight committee in Parliament.

The listing of exports to countries other than the U.S. totalled $10.1 billion, with the figure more than doubled with the inclusion of sales to the U.S.

“The point, I think, is that of course under the Conservatives our arms exports nearly doubled, without any kind of Parliamentary oversight,” Laverdiere said.

“We asked for a committee like they have in the U.K. for parliamentary oversight; this was rejected twice by the Liberals, these Liberals, and the fact is that our exports shifted from exporting to NATO countries and exporting more, and more to the Middle East, for example, regions that are in turmoil.”

Michael Byers, a University of British Columbia defence specialist and one of Canada’s leading experts on the topic, says the growth in Canadian military exports demonstrates a need for the Liberal government to go even further than it has with the Arms Trade Treaty legislation, Bill C-47, and amend it to include specific prohibitions on arms sales to countries whose governments are violating human rights or using weapons against civilians.

“We’re one of the largest arms exporters in the world and, among other things, the second largest exporter to Saudi Arabia,” Byers said.

“Canadians can judge whether that’s appropriate or not, but certainly we are a major player in this business,” he said. “We need to actually follow the treaty when we implement it, and this bill does not do so, so they should scrap it and start all over again.”