Build it here or buy it there? Canada’s defence plan meets Trump’s new arms agenda

The Canadian government’s long-awaited defence industrial strategy formally landed on Tuesday and arrives in the shadow of a push by the Trump administration to further make the United States the arms-maker of choice among allies.

The new strategy has been in the works for more than a year and promises to use defence investment to leverage the Canadian economy and jobs.

It sets out a series of important, high benchmarks for the country to achieve over the next decade, including buying and maintaining most of the military’s equipment domestically. 

"Defending Canada means more than the size of our military," Prime Minister Mark Carney said during the formal unveiling of the strategy in Montreal on Tuesday.

"It also means the strength of our industries, the resilience of our economy and our capacity to act independently when it matters most. Our national security and our economic security go hand in hand."

The strategy was supposed to be released last week but the tragic mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., prompted the federal government to impose an embargo on release of the document.

Details, however, were released by a U.K.-based publication, prompting Canadian media, including CBC News, to report on the details. 

At the centre of the plan is what is being described as a "build, partner, buy" philosophy. 

This means prioritizing buying from Canadian defence manufacturers. If that can’t be done, the next step will be to partner with allied nations to acquire the equipment, attracting investment and intellectual property rights to Canada.

"Only after exhausting these options will we buy from abroad," Carney said. "Even then, we will ensure that the maximum benefits are returned to Canada throughout the value chain, including through a modernized industrial and technological benefits regime."

The strategy sets the goal of awarding 70 per cent of federal defence contracts to Canadian firms within a decade. In a background technical briefing on Tuesday, senior defence officials said that currently, 43 per cent of federal defence contracts are awarded to Canadian firms.

The new strategy also proposes to raise the serviceability rates of Canadian military equipment to 75 per cent of the navy’s ships, 80 per cent of the army’s vehicles and 85 per cent of the air force’s planes. At the moment, the serviceability rate for the navy sits at 68 per cent, the army is at 51 per cent and the air force at 42 per cent. 

A senior defence official said that with more personnel, new equipment and improved spare parts, the goals set out in the new strategy are "aggressive but achievable targets."

The strategy identifies 10 key sectors in the defence industry where military equipment can be built in Canada to support not only the Canadian Armed Forces but create an arms and high-tech weapons export sector — something previous Canadian governments, especially the Liberals under Justin Trudeau, were reluctant to do.