Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / 'Strategic autonomy' What's behind Canada's new defense plan

Transcript

'Strategic autonomy' What's behind Canada's new defense plan · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now to Canada, where the Prime Minister Mark Conney has
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: announced significant boost to defense spending. The budget for defense
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: research will rise by eighty five percent over the next
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: ten years to reduce Artawa's reliance on US arms sales.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Mister Conney said Canada can no longer sustain its dependence
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: on its southern neighbor.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Canada's armed forces testing to see if the country is
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: ready for a very cold war. As the nation prepares
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: to boost its investments in military and security infrastructure. The
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: army is conducting drilled in Canada's far North in order
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: to improve its ability to act in the Arctic.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: The conditions are really challenging, but I think we're coming
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: up here and learning.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: What we need to do better for next time, and
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: I think we're really meeting the moment.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Canada's first ever defense Industrial strategy is set to scale
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: up Canadian firms and create secure jobs in the military sector.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: The announcements made by the Prime Minister Carney means the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: country will reach NATO's two percent military spending target five
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: years earlier than promised.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: This strategy is about protecting Canada's sovereignty in its fullest sense.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: In other words, our ability to act independently in that
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: more dangerous and divided world. And to be clear, this
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: strategic autonomy doesn't mean isolation like.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Relations between Ottawa and Washington have been strained since Donald
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Trump came to office last year when the US president
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: launched a trade war with its northern neighbor. Canada hopes
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: its plans to transform its defense industry will also boost
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the country's economic growth within a decade.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I'm going to speak to Gaya Rivard Pichet, who's an
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: executive director of the Conference of Defense Associations Institute, as
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: one of Canada's leading defense and security think tanks. Welcome today,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: w can we start with your reaction to the announcement
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: by the Canadian government of this massive increase in investment
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in a homegrown defense industries.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Well, it's an announcement that was very well received here
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: in Canada. I had been long awaited. The policy was
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: the new strategy, the Defense Industrial Strategy, was first supposed
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: to be announced as fall, following the announcement the Center
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: this summer by the Kearney government that we would reinvest
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: in defense to meet the two percent and then a
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: three point five percent of GDP with defense investment. But
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: really The strategy that's been announced earlier this week is
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: about making sure that Canadian businesses can really benefit of
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: those investments and making sure that while we make sure
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: that the Canadian armedforces can maintain a technological and operational
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: advantage on our adversaries, those investment will also contribute to
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: economic growth, creating jobs and just benefit all Canadians.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though, that these sort of major announcements
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: are all very well. Billions of Canadian dollars going into
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Canadian companies great, But how do you assess the likelihood
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that this announced increase in investment will be sustained and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: not watered down by future governments Because we're talking about
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of money.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: It's a lot of money. But as we know, the
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: threat environment has changed quite a lot. I think Europe,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Isy and Germany are seeing it first and foremost, but
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: in Canada we're feeling it as well. Canada has benefited
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: from the peace dividend following the end of the Second
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: World War, but we are now in a very different environment.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: I think in Canada. Would really led to our realization
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: that the world had changed was first the full invasion
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: of Ukraine by Russia, but then the comments by the
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Trump administration in the United States about Canada that could
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: potentially become the fifty first state.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: I thought interrupt you there, because what you've laid out
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: there lots of rational reasons why Canada should should approach this.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: But what we know is that government doesn't always appear
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: to work rationally. So the Carni government in this moment says,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: let's throw all this money at Canadian industry. If Russia
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't do anything stupid to Europe or to Canada in
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the next year or so, then future Canadian governments may
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: look at this announcement and say, well, actually, we need
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the money for welfare, we need the money for the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: health service, so let's just water it down. How do
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: we guard against that and how do you assess the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: likelihood of that happening.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Well, when it comes to Canada, it's the first time
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: in her history that economic security and national defense are
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: so closely aligned, and that has led a lot of
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Canadians to realize the environment in which we are. And
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: this is why I think the strategy is clever about
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: putting to a bringing together not only the element of
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: making sure we are or to defend ourself, addressing cor
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: vulnerabilities that Canada has in terms of national defense, but
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: then making sure that those investments will have clear benefits
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: for a Canadian through job creation. We're in a difficult
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: position now with the tariffs, and we are for every
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: dollar invested in military equipment, seventy five cents are going
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: to the United States. If we diversify, if reinvest at home,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: this is a way that we could actually generate growth
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: in an economy that is so closely into the United
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: States at the moment.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: And given the proximity of that massive US at arms industry.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Does Canada actually have much of a defense industry at
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the moment.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: We do have a defense industry, however, I think it
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: can grow bigger and the strategy is really giving us
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: the mean to do so. It's proposing a framework that
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: is proposing through different approach, the first one being building
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: sovereign capability what we actually need to defend Canada. Then
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: partnering with the United States, also other nations, partner nations
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: like European countries and NATAL members as well as some
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: of our partners in the Indo Pacific to acquire certain capabilities,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: and in the case of very advanced capabilities, we would
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: be looking at buying them from partners and like minded
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: nations like the United States.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you for talking us through that, Gaya. Rivard Piche
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: from the Conference of Defense Associations Institute.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: My question