Minister of National Defence David McGuinty, left, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, right, during a welcome ceremony for McGuinty at the Pentagon on Monday.JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
Defence Minister David McGuinty says Ottawa plans to prioritize technologies with both civilian and defence applications as part of its forthcoming Defence Industrial Strategy, which is expected to be released after the fall budget.
The minister shared an update on the federal government’s progress with the strategy on Wednesday before a room full of industry members at Ottawa’s Area X.O., a research and development complex for emerging technologies.
“We know that a secure and sovereign country requires a secure and sovereign economy. So, we have to get down to business. And in the defence sector, we’re getting down to business in a really big way,” he said.
In shaping the defence industrial strategy, Mr. McGuinty said the federal government has spoken to about 300 companies to learn industry’s perspective and is looking to its allies’ strategies for examples of what’s possible.
For example, in Poland, 80 cents of every dollar spent on military procurement goes to the United States, he said. Within a decade, the country’s goal is to decrease that amount to 50 cents as it grows its industrial base.
Meanwhile, Mr. McGuinty estimated Canada spends about 75 cents of every dollar of its military procurement in the U.S. And roughly 40 per cent of the 600 companies that make up Canada’s industrial base are subsidiaries of U.S.-headquartered companies.
Defence hackathon brings whizzes from across Canada together to solve Arctic surveillance
There are a number of capabilities for which Canada will continue to rely on the U.S., such as new forms of artillery or radar systems for the Arctic, Mr. McGuinty said. “But we’re also big enough to spread our wings to diversify.”
However, Canada should be wary of overdiversification away from the U.S., said Raquel Garbers, a visiting executive at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and a principal architect of Canada’s defence policy, Our North, Strong and Free.
“The defence of North America needs to function like an orchestra. So, there is a risk if you start buying capabilities from a different continent that you will introduce a glitch into North American defences,” she said during a panel discussion at Area X.O.
And while China may be on the leading edge of certain key defence technologies, it’s the U.S. – not Europe – that’s in second place, she said.
“I, for one, would like the highest and best technology defending me here in North America, and that’s going to lead me straight to looking at the United States,” Ms. Garbers said.
Canada weighing direct contract with foreign governments for sub purchase, head of navy says
Still, Canada is continuing to strengthen ties with countries other than the U.S. On Wednesday, Mr. McGuinty broke the news of an agreement between Canada and Indonesia to collaborate on defence research.
“We’re working together, sharing knowledge, pooling our resources. We’re creating a defence innovation ecosystem that’s more resilient, more agile, more capable,” Mr. McGuinty said.
Within Canada, this ecosystem will soon include a network of research hubs specifically designed for classified projects – something Mr. McGuinty said Canada’s competitors have had for some time.
Sonya Shorey, president and chief executive officer of Invest Ottawa, which operates Area X.O., described these classified research hubs as a “room in a room.”
For security, the research and development is done within a structure that blocks electromagnetic interference, such as the storage-container-like enclosures made by Ottawa-based company Raymond EMC. She said she’d like to see one of these secure hubs built in Ottawa, which already has a handful of testing sites that are certified by NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic.
The first-of-its-kind research network within Canada will be established by Defence Research and Development Canada, Mr. McGuinty said.
“They’re going to be helping us set up these locations where people can come together into a classified setting, bring nothing in and bring nothing out,” he said.
Once established, the classified spaces will make room for the development of even more defence technologies within Canada, including those with dual-use applications.
“These are key, these dual-use innovations, because they’re going to allow Canadian companies to diversify and scale more rapidly, increasing their global competitiveness,” Mr. McGuinty said.