{"id":488671,"date":"2026-02-20T23:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488671\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:23:10","slug":"sask-drone-maker-draganfly-has-high-hopes-for-ottawas-defence-spending-spree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/488671\/","title":{"rendered":"Sask. drone maker Draganfly has high hopes for Ottawa\u2019s defence spending spree"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

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Draganfly Inc. has manufactured aerial drones in Saskatoon for more than 25 years.<\/p>\n

The drones are used around the world in search and rescue operations, agriculture and in the U.S. military, but the company still struggled to get the attention of Canada\u2019s Department of National Defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is the Canadian government and the defence community would not want to deal with us previously unless we had foreign customers, unless we were a provider to the U.S. defence space or to other allies,\u201d CEO Cameron Chell said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Canada, we tend to chop off that poppy that sticks up a little bit and only really focus on those that are successful somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chell thinks that attitude could change if the federal Liberal government follows through on its \u201cBuy Canada\u201d defence industrial strategy, announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Montreal on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s where Canada needs to stand in the world: using the defence industrial strategy as a platform to drive economic prosperity within the country, protect our sovereignty [and] establish our geopolitical position,\u201d Chell said.<\/p>\n

\"APrime Minister Mark Carney announced his new defence spending strategy at CAE Inc., in Montreal, Feb. 17, 2026. (Christinne Muschi\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

The plan prioritizes Canadian defence manufacturers, with a focus on small and mid-sized firms working in 10 priority sectors.<\/p>\n

Chell said Canada\u2019s supply chain is missing plenty of links because much of it has been \u201coutsourced to foreign countries, whether they’re allies or adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, 43 per cent of federal defence contracts are awarded to Canadian firms. Carney\u2019s plan is to boost that number to 70 per cent within a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefending Canada means more than the size of our military,\u201d Carney said during Tuesday\u2019s announcement. \u201cIt also means the strength of our industries, the resilience of our economy and our capacity to act independently when it matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are other Saskatchewan-based companies working in the defence and aerospace industries, including SED Systems in Saskatoon (now part of the Calian group of companies) and Pro Metal Industries in Regina, which is owned by Pasqua First Nation.<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan could play an important role in the new defence strategy, the provincial Ministry of Trade and Export Development said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe province\u2019s advanced manufacturing sector is already producing components used by defence companies,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

“Saskatchewan has 10 of the 12 critical minerals that are necessary for defence, as well as a supportive and stable regulatory environment to supply what the industry needs.”<\/p>\n

\"ACameron Chell is the CEO of Draganfly Inc. (Submitted by Draganfly Inc.)<\/p>\n

One of the 10 priority sectors in the strategy is robotic and autonomous systems, such as the drones made by Draganfly, which became the world’s first commercial drone manufacturer in 1999.<\/p>\n

Drones are becoming an integral part of militaries around the world, Chell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrones provide asymmetric capabilities \u2026 You can actually build advantage with relatively low budgets compared to what used to happen. They’re incredibly effective.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-488671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}