Certainly, there are areas where in Canada we could do better to support industry. Space is an area where we have a natural development. The nuclear industry is another area. I could go on and on.
However, since we have been buying only foreign systems and don't have an ecosystem in Canada—and I would make the point to the other panellists to tag along with that—the reality for a lot of major defence capabilities is that many Canadian firms have looked at the United States as a better partner. The United States government is a better area to sell their equipment because it has a large scale. It has a greater ability to identify and talk to people in government to get the requirements. It's a much better relationship.
The reality is that we haven't invested in these areas, so we're not going to get military systems any time in the next five to 10 years in a lot of key cases without significant sustained investment.
In my personal view, I would argue that we probably need a two-stage system. If we are identifying certain capabilities we want to develop and acquire, we should be taking a long-term view while immediately dealing with a lot of critical security challenges we face and addressing them quickly, not only by buying off the shelf from other countries but also by having investment behind them. Maybe we could do co-production with other countries.
If we immediately jump—and there has been talk about this—to try to find an immature Canadian solution, it's not going to end well. We're going to get the Ross rifle of today or other capabilities that are not mature enough and not capable. Again, the Canadian Armed Forces will suffer as a result.