Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am the assistant deputy minister for policy-industry at the Department of National Defence. We are all so grateful to have been invited to be part of your study.
I am here for two reasons. I am here because of the role we are playing, in policy, to develop and implement Canada's defence industrial strategy, and because Canada's dual-use and defence research needs are essential to the growth of our defence industrial base.
Last year, Canada invested $65 billion in defence and security. In March 2026, we reached the 2% threshold of gross domestic product, or GDP, for defence spending—a threshold set by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. We are now on track to meet NATO's new target of spending 3.5% of GDP on defence.
To reach this ambitious target, we want to build and sustain our defence industrial base and learn from real-world examples, such as the conflict in Ukraine, where we know that efficient R and D, innovation and adoption have been operationally decisive.
While there may be more than one definition of “dual use”, we consider it to be technologies, goods and services that can have an application in the commercial civilian market or the defence, security and intelligence market.
One example of dual-use technology is drones or unmanned autonomous systems. Drones can be used for intelligence collection, reconnaissance and surveillance, and/or to deliver a military effect. They can also be used for tracking wildfires, for example, or for environmental monitoring.
The defence industrial strategy is positioned to accelerate the adoption of Canadian defence and dual-use innovations in drones and many other sovereign capabilities, and turn that into a strategic advantage for the Canadian Armed Forces. That is why Colonel Prince is here, and I hope he will have a chance to share his operational experience with you.
It goes without saying that we are working closely with our federal partners, the provinces and territories, municipalities, and higher education and research institutions. This is now a national effort.
There are barriers to overcome for the system to work as it should. We know that industry requires a clear demand signal from national defence. We also know that we want to protect our investments and our industrial advantage, which is why co-operation with Public Safety Canada is so important and why Dr. Green is ready to speak more about this.
I will close my half of the remarks by highlighting some specific actions under the defence industrial strategy that may be relevant to your study.
First, we established a new science and research defence advisory council to strengthen collaboration and to facilitate open discussion between federal partners and post-secondary institutions on, specifically, defence and dual-use R and D.
We are accelerating the security clearance process for defence sector personnel and establishing a standardized accreditation process for industry-operated secure facilities.
We have invested $244 million in defence and dual-use technologies through the defence industry assist stream of the National Research Council's IRAP.
Also, we stood up BOREALIS, which is why I'm pleased to turn to Dr. Kaminska to finish the opening remarks on behalf of National Defence.