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WHERE TO NEXT ON DEFENSE — Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU recently announced Canada’s latest support efforts for Ukraine, with Ottawa preparing to ship the country more than 11,000 assault rifles and 9 million rounds of ammunition from Colt Canada.
But with anticipated cuts in the pipeline and a long-delayed policy update, there are a lot of question marks around spending on Canada’s own military, and how the country should further help Ukraine. Playbook recently caught up with CHRISTYN CIANFARANI, head of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), at the Halifax International Security Forum. Here’s part of our conversation, edited for length and clarity: Defense Minister BILL BLAIR has spoken about the need for more military resources and used the term “industrial policy” when referring to the long-promised defense policy update. It sounds like you have an ally in Cabinet. What do you make of that? It's nice to hear. Successive Canadian governments don't like to talk about industrial policy. I actually think it will become Canada's Achilles’ heel because by not talking about it, we don't make the right choices. And we don't put the priorities where we want them to be for the future. Every new minister — and we would have seen this also with ANITA ANAND — they get in the job and they really do see it the way it is, they feel the pain points from the Canadian Armed Forces because they're quite close to it. But the fiscal reality of the situation, especially going into potentially an election, in 12, 18 months or whatever it's going to be, the reality is for Canadians, pocketbook issues are going to collide with this. But knowing that it has yet to have been shaken out by the center, and that is going to be coming soon enough in the budget. If you don't see something in the budget language, that's going to be a really hard sell. [Blair’s] got a window before the budget hits, where we go, ‘OK, we're listening and we're eager,’ but will reality set in? We don't know. In terms of what Canada can supply Ukraine with in the future, what are the kinds of different pathways available? Ukraine has been pretty open about things that they want from Canada. At our big trade show back in May, they were really clear they want some of our light armored vehicles; they're some of the best in the world. You hear them talk about munitions, munitions, munitions. They want Canada and the U.S. to gear up our production in 155-mm and 105-mm rounds. We confirmed in our conversations with the Ukrainians that, while we like to talk about that we're going to rebuild Ukraine, for them, the conflict is pressing — they're not thinking about rebuilding, they're thinking about what they need today on the ground. So we have been pushing on the government. We were in front of the national defense committee talking about munitions and what we could do in Canada. That's one of those areas where Canada could probably transform a couple of its facilities to have the latest and greatest, which would be useful for our own military at the same time as arming Ukraine. Now, that will take time. Had they started it when we started these conversations six or 12 months ago, there would be facilities up and running today. Did you read the recent departmental results report? It raises concerns about concurrent deployments, aging infrastructure and the sense of military preparedness. I think that is their number one concern, that they don't have the people to do all the things that Canadians want them to do or that the government needs them to do or that the rest of the world needs them to do. It's a bit of a chicken and egg too, which is you may not have the people to use the new equipment that you want to buy, but if you don't have the new equipment, no one wants to join [a military that] has nothing for them to train on. You're not going to be able to recruit people if what they see is a 1970s kit, right? I think they feel stretched from both sides. So what's the sell for PMO on actually getting the government to commit to more military spending? We know it's never a vote issue. It becomes one of those things — we have to do the right thing. It may not give me any votes, and it may not get me elected, but the last thing I'm going to do is put this file right. You come out of a forum like this and realize just how dangerous the world is, just how insidious the adversaries are, and then how far Canada truly is behind the rest of the world in our own ability to protect ourselves. | 
