Thank you, Chair and members of the committee.
Canada is at a defining moment.
The global security environment is shifting rapidly—and with it, the expectations on Canada to build sovereign capability, strengthen our armed forces and contribute meaningfully to our allies.
We are facing a once-in-a-generation opportunity. With the Government of Canada committing 5% of GDP to defence, the question is not simply how much we spend; it's how we leverage that investment. This is about execution and impact, and this depends on one thing: how well we mobilize our national ecosystem.
Canada has extraordinary assets: world-class universities, colleges and hospitals; a highly skilled workforce; federal labs; industry; ambitious entrepreneurs; start-ups and scale-ups; Canadian anchors and multinationals; and our investment and innovation landscape. They must work together to achieve a shared vision and shared goals.
These assets cannot operate in parallel. They must be a fully coordinated system at the scale of this investment—from programs to platforms, from inputs to outcomes, from fragmentation to integration. Defence, investment, innovation, research, procurement and economic growth are one system. This is how every dollar of the 5% delivers maximum national value.
The first recommendation is to have a national inventory and strategic alignment. We must conduct a capability assessment across industry, academia, government and the investment and entrepreneurship ecosystem—not a static report, but a living, dynamic map of Canadian capability. This would enable us to identify where we can lead globally and to target investments where we punch above our weight. This is how investment delivers global leadership, not just participation, aligning research, funding and procurement to mission and ensuring the 5% GDP investment is directed with precision and purpose.
In Canada's capital region, we have taken this approach. Ottawa-Gatineau has a concentration of defence assets, expertise and innovation that does not exist anywhere else in the country. Through our global defence innovation hub strategy, we are putting them to work. We are pursuing $3 billion in collective investment to unlock 18,000 new jobs and $9 billion in GDP, while strengthening sovereign capabilities. We are ambitiously pursuing moon shots, from the headquarters of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank to the spinoff of the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre into a commercial compound stand-alone semiconductor fab. Every region in this country has distinct strengths. Combine them regionally. Connect them nationally. That is the blueprint.
Recommendation two is to leverage and integrate core infrastructure. Canada has already made major investments that are critically important in NRC, granting councils, academic research programs, regional development agencies and initiatives like BOREALIS, NATO DIANA and the forthcoming national AI strategy. The opportunity is to connect them and layer in new investment where opportunity exists and where we can punch above our weight. We must capture both funded and unfunded concepts in a national innovation pipeline so they can be connected, recombined and deployed as priorities evolve. New defence spending can't simply add volume. It must build an integrated, cohesive, collaborative national ecosystem.
Recommendation three is to accelerate lab-to-deployment and procurement pathways. The success of this investment will be measured by one thing: what reaches our forces and allies. In Canada's capital region, we're advancing this through Area X.O, developed by Invest Ottawa—our ITB-qualified R and D complex and NATO DIANA test centre serving dynamic companies—with integrated testing, direct DND and Canadian Armed Forces end-user engagement, and procurement vehicles enabling early-stage deployment.
The pathway must be consistent and continuous: research, test, validate, procure and scale. Procurement must be integrated from the outset. We must support multi-company consortia as well, because defence customers don't buy components. They buy integrated systems. Consortia allow us to build mission-ready capability, compete globally and export to allied markets.
Recommendation four is to further invest in and deepen industry-academic-government research collaboration. We must simply double down on collaboration and the investment required to scale it. We applaud the $1.6 billion in budget 2025 for research. We must build on this to keep pace with other nations and maximize our impact where the opportunity is greatest. This means more applied collaborative research, stronger industry-academic partnerships, accelerated commercialization and a relentless focus on homegrown capability. We must also attract trusted, values-aligned capital from allied nations, ensuring global investment strengthens our sovereignty.
Our post-secondary institutions here—Algonquin, Carleton, La Cité and uOttawa, which is a U15 research-intensive university—are already delivering. They are training future tech and trades leaders, collaborating with entrepreneurs, DND and global partners, and harnessing deep expertise in autonomy, drones, quantum, aerospace, cyber, AI and Arctic solutions. Research-intensive universities, colleges and hospitals are core engines of innovation and infrastructure.
We have the talent, the capability and the investment. Every dollar must strengthen our forces, protect our country and serve our allies. Let's build the strongest, most sovereign Canada together.
