Federal Government's Preparation for Launching Defence Industrial Strategy
Anti-war demonstration at CANSEC arms fair in Ottawa, May 25,
2025
The official announcement about the Defence Industrial Strategy is expected after the fall budget is released on November 4, news agencies report. The Globe and Mail reported on September 25 that the government "plans to prioritize technologies with both civilian and defence application." To that end, in the meantime, Defence Minister David McGuinty "has spoken to about 300 companies to learn industry's perspective and is looking to its allies' strategies for examples of what's possible."
What's Possible According to Carney Government
Following the announcements made on September 5 in Mississauga of measures to fund businesses and workers in preparation for his government's new Defence Industrial Strategy, Prime Minister Mark Carney made an announcement in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador on September 8 that $80 million of the $1 billion Regional Tariff Response Initiative, first announced in March of this year, would be dedicated to businesses in Atlantic Canada. He said that this investment backs the seafood sector.
Speaking to the press in Montreal on September 8 alongside Jean Simard, president of the Aluminum Association of Canada, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said that Quebec's aluminum sector would receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the $5 billion fund to help sectors hit with U.S. tariffs. She referred to "the projects that are being discussed right now with Alcoa, with Rio Tinto and with Alouette." Alcoa and Rio Tinto are both foreign-owned monopolies acting to secure more Canadian public funds. Simard said that of the 3.3 million tonnes of metal that was produced in 2024, a record year, 90 per cent was for export and 90 per cent of the exports went to the U.S. and that the industry cannot fully cut ties with the U.S. market -- meaning further integration into the U.S. war machine.
Canada has announced that it will pause its electric vehicle mandate for next year, dropping the requirement that 20 per cent of total vehicle sales in 2026 had to be EVs. A Globe editorial in September called on the government to scrap the mandate altogether as heavy-handed and inflexible and "a backdoor subsidy for the EV industry." It proposed instead the enforcement of regulations, in place since 2010, under the greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles and light trucks. The regulations set company-specific goals for average emissions. According to the Globe editorial, they could be tightened over time so that the only way to meet them would be to have an EV-only product line. Instead of incentives, the government should spend on building up charging infrastructure, the Globe said.
The Carney government has the
full cooperation of the Canadian Labour Congress and Unifor.
Calling for a strategy for building Canadian industry, both
unions nonetheless welcomed the measures as temporary relief.
They said some, like the changes to Employment Insurance
eligibility, require clarification and adjustment to make them
broader and permanent. They pointed out that the changes to EI
do not correct the problem that many workers do not qualify at
all and the change to extend benefits to "long-tenured workers"
could exclude workers who have faced periodic shutdowns and
layoffs and others.
That's it. A complaint. Meanwhile, contrary to the interests of the working class and people they support the basic thrust of Carney's measures which conform to what is decided in the boardrooms of supranational narrow private interests. Nothing to do with building Canadian industry or which sectors of the economy are required for that if the strategy is to serve the people and meet their needs.
Unifor President Lana Payne said, "We cannot surrender the future of EV production to overseas automakers. [...] Canada needs consumer incentives, investments in domestic EV supply chains, and for automakers to start building affordable EVs here in Canada. A mandate alone won't secure a Canadian EV industry – we need a full industrial strategy that ensures we both make and sell EVs in this country."
This article was published in
Volume 55
Number 10 - October 2025
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2025/Articles/M550104.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca