Mr. Speaker, it is my honour today to pay tribute to the 60,000 Canadians who work in the defence and security industries. These are the jobs equipping our military and first responders. Many of them are here for the CANSEC annual conference in Ottawa, and many of these employees are also veterans.
I was also proud to meet with Janna and the volunteers from Women in Defence & Security yesterday. It now has over 2,000 members working across this country in aerospace, defence, and security in high-skilled, highly trained jobs. They are our leaders. They are our builders in these sectors. I congratulate WIDS.
One of its members is a classmate of mine from military college, Christyn Cianfarani, a former naval officer, veteran, and now president of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries. Christyn is leading this conference and bringing together great industry and great jobs for Canadians.
I want to thank them for kitting out our military with the equipment it needs.
Best wishes for the rest of the CANSEC conference.