This week’s announcement that the Government of Canada will invest nearly $2 billion to procure an additional 190 Armoured Combat Support Vehicles from General Dynamics Land Systems Canada is welcome news on several fronts. The investment supports the modernization of the Canadian Armed Forces while helping Canada move toward its NATO defence spending commitments. It also secures high-value manufacturing jobs in London, Ontario, and provides certainty for hundreds of skilled workers, their families, and the broader community that depends on advanced manufacturing.
At the Brampton Board of Trade, we celebrate investments that strengthen Canadian manufacturing and create opportunities for workers. Every major industrial investment has a ripple effect that extends far beyond the walls of a single facility. Suppliers grow, apprentices find careers, local businesses benefit, and communities gain confidence in their economic future. For the employees at the London facility and the businesses that support it, this announcement is genuinely good news and deserves to be celebrated.
At the same time, announcements like this should encourage us to ask a broader question about what success ultimately looks like for Canada’s defence industrial strategy.
If our objective is simply to increase defence spending and meet our NATO commitments, then contracts like this represent meaningful progress. But if our ambition is to build one of the world’s leading defence industrial bases, procurement alone cannot be the measure of success. The true opportunity before Canada is much larger.
Around the world, allied nations are dramatically increasing defence spending. Supply chains are being reshaped, countries are seeking trusted industrial partners, and governments are increasingly recognizing that economic security and national security are inseparable. Canada enters this moment with significant advantages: world-class engineering talent, advanced manufacturers, expertise in artificial intelligence, critical minerals, and a highly innovative private sector capable of competing internationally. The challenge is ensuring that our procurement strategy becomes an industrial strategy.
Every major defence investment should be viewed not only as the purchase of equipment but as an opportunity to grow Canadian intellectual property, expand domestic manufacturing capacity, strengthen supply chains, and help Canadian companies become global competitors. The greatest return on public investment is not simply the equipment delivered today, but the companies, technologies, and export opportunities that continue generating value for decades afterward.
This is where ownership matters. General Dynamics Land Systems Canada is an outstanding employer with an exceptional workforce, and the people designing and manufacturing these vehicles in London deserve tremendous recognition. Their expertise is unquestioned, and the investment in their community is significant.
At the same time, strategic decisions, future investment priorities, and ultimately shareholder value reside with a foreign parent company. That reality doesn’t diminish the value of the work being done in Canada, but it does highlight an important question for policymakers: how do we ensure that more of Canada’s growing defence investment also builds Canadian-owned enterprises that can compete on the world stage?
Fortunately, we don’t need to imagine what that looks like because we already have compelling examples.
Companies such as MDA, whose Canadian innovation has helped define the global space industry for decades, demonstrate that Canadian firms can develop world-leading technology while exporting advanced capabilities around the globe. More recently, Roshel Smart Armored Vehicles has shown how a Canadian-owned manufacturer can rapidly scale into an international success story, supplying armoured vehicles to allied nations while creating hundreds of highly skilled manufacturing jobs here in Ontario.
These companies illustrate what is possible when Canadian innovation, manufacturing expertise, and entrepreneurial ambition come together. They remind us that Canada is fully capable of producing not only world-class products but world-class defence companies.
That is why the federal government’s defence industrial strategy should ultimately be judged by more than spending targets or procurement timelines. Success should also be measured by whether we are creating Canadian intellectual property, growing Canadian-owned firms, strengthening domestic supply chains, expanding exports, and helping innovative small and medium-sized businesses become integral participants in national and allied defence programs. The objective should be to build an ecosystem where today’s procurement decisions become tomorrow’s globally competitive industries.
Canada has all of the ingredients required to become a defence industrial leader. We have exceptional talent, innovative companies, respected research institutions, and longstanding relationships with our allies. What we need now is the deliberate policy framework that connects those strengths into a coherent national strategy.
The announcement in London represents an important step forward, and everyone connected to that project should be proud of what it means for their community and for Canada’s defence capabilities. But the real measure of success will be whether, ten or twenty years from now, we can point to a growing number of Canadian-owned companies that have become global leaders because of the decisions we are making today.
Meeting our defence spending commitments is important.
Building the next generation of Canadian defence champions is essential.