Canada plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade into a new plan to build and buy Canadian-made military products wherever possible.
In an announcement on Tuesday in Montreal, Prime Minister Mark Carney touted the new Defence Industrial Strategy.
It calls for $180 billion in defence procurement and $290 billion in capital investment into defence-related industries over the next decade.
The federal government anticipates $125 billion in downstream economic benefits from the plan by 2035, and promises 125,000 new careers in the industry.
Speaking in Montreal, Carney highlighted that Canada’s political situation is rapidly changing, and veering into the unknown: “The various assumptions which have defined Canadian policies in terms of defence and foreign affairs, these assumptions have been completely upended.”
Canada’s new defence industry plan will focus on building up self-reliance and reducing dependency on a small number of military suppliers.
The plan aims to up defence exports by 50 per cent, and award 70 per cent of defence acquisitions to Canadian firms.
“The truth is, over the last few decades, Canada has neither spent enough on our defence nor invested enough in our defence industries. We’ve relied too heavily on our geography and others to protect us,” Carney explained. “This has created vulnerabilities that we can no longer afford, and dependencies that we can no longer sustain.”
A larger breakdown of the new plan can be found on the federal government’s website.
