Yesterday, Canada took an expensive step that is also a very necessary one as we continue to redefine ourselves outside of our relationship with our big brother to the south.
Prime Minister Mark Carney stopped in Montreal to reveal Canada’s first ever defence industrial strategy.
The goal is to increase the percentage of percentage of Canadian companies getting federal defence contracts and add thousands of new private-sector jobs in defence.
The numbers are daunting.
The goal is to award 70 per cent of federal defence contracts to Canadian firms within a decade. Currently, that’s 43 percent.
The key phrase is three simple words. “Build, partner, buy”. We build it ourselves, or we partner with someone else to make it (quite possibly here still), and last option is to buy it with no local investment in jobs or industry.
It’s a bold plan, but raising our defence spending to 5% of GDP alone will cost tens of billions of dollars.
Still, it’s worth it. With this vision, more of the money spent will stay here. The supply chain will be here. Orders will be filled here. No military equipment will be denied or used as leverage.
Right now, 75 cents of every federal dollar Canada spends on military purchases goes to the Americans, and if we want to truly stand up to them on issues like trade and tariffs, a huge start would be going to them less and less for the hardware we need to defend our sovereignty.
I’m Paul Martin and that’s what I see looking Beyond the Headlines.
