Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said at The Globe and Mail on Tuesday that she’d like to see Canada’s aerospace sector rebuilt to resemble former versions of itself.Galit Rodan/The Globe and Mail
Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says aerospace and shipbuilding are areas where Canada can excel as the government prepares its Defence Industrial Strategy, which aims to transform the country’s status as a laggard to a leader in the sector.
The strategy, which Ms. Joly said should be finalized in the coming months, will be key in shaping the future of Canada’s defence industry, through items such as job creation in manufacturing, strengthened ties with Europe and a renewed relationship with the private sector.
“We’re doing this because, fundamentally, we cannot take our peace for granted any more,” she said in an interview Tuesday with The Globe and Mail.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed to boosting Canada’s spending on defence to 2 per cent of its gross domestic product this fiscal year, and to 5 per cent by 2035. The latter NATO target will require Canada spend up to $150-billion annually, more than double its existing budget.
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Through military investment, Ms. Joly said she’d like to see Canada’s aerospace sector rebuilt into something that resembles former versions of itself – such as in the 1950s, when the country was known for its Avro Arrow program. She’d also like to see the country’s shipyards become an export market for the rest of the world.
With the Defence Industrial Strategy on the way, Ms. Joly said the government isn’t waiting to take action. Last week, she sent a mandate letter to the Business Development Bank of Canada, a Crown corporation, asking it to work with government on the development of the country’s defence sector and sovereign capabilities, such as dual-use technology and military weapons and equipment. More specifically, she asked the bank to support small to medium-sized enterprises that make up the sector’s supply chains.
In the letter, obtained by The Globe and Mail, Ms. Joly concludes with a request to the BDC to provide her with “a proposal in alignment with industry best practices to ensure that commercially viable businesses operating in the full scope of defence and security industries can access the financial supports they need to start up, grow and prosper.”
It’s the first of several mandate letters Ms. Joly will give out to government bodies, such as Export Development Canada, the Canadian Space Agency and the National Research Council, asking them to actively support defence-related businesses and dual-use technologies.
First, however, she said the military must be at the table with the private sector to rebuild a level of trust that has been slowly degraded after successive governments failed to adequately invest in defence.
“History has shown us that when you’re able to have defence and the private sector really work together, you’re able to spear up innovation, make sure that your country is peaceful and, ultimately, create jobs,” Ms. Joly said in the interview. After all, companies want contracts, not subsidies, she said.
Supports being rolled out by the government for Canada’s steel sector are also part of its push toward building sovereign defence capabilities. For example, Ms. Joly said the country’s shipbuilding and aerospace industries should be buying domestic steel. And the fact that these industries have access to a Canadian supply chain for certain materials, such as critical minerals and metals, is a large part of the reason they’re being identified as priorities in building strength at home.
“We cannot have a military that is dependent on a manufacturing sector that is either on the other side of the ocean or south of the border.”
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This push to be more self-sustaining is already playing out in actions taken by companies such as Seaspan, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Ontario-based Algoma Steel Inc. ASTL-T and Stigterstaal Canada. The partnership was formed specifically to assess the feasibility of Algoma supplying steel to Seaspan to contribute to the future of Canada’s shipbuilding sector.
Strategic partnerships beyond our own borders will also be a key part of the Defence Industrial Strategy. While the U.S. continues to make decisions around tariffs and its economy that serve itself, Ms. Joly said Canada is working with other countries and NATO members to become more connected.
“The test of this is actually the Defence Industrial Strategy because we will need to be working more with Europe on this, and obviously NATO, while continuing to understand that a lot of our companies are American-owned,” she said, referring to the fact that roughly 40 per cent of the 600 companies that make up Canada’s industrial base are subsidiaries of U.S.-headquartered firms.
Canada is open to foreign direct investment, she said, but not at the sacrifice of its own sovereign capabilities: “We won’t be an economy of subsidiaries. We will own IP and we will be able to lead the world.”
Defence is a priority for this Liberal government because the world is a more dangerous place, Ms. Joly said, and Canada needs a military it can rely upon to defend itself.