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Le to right: Jeff Tasseron, Director, Strategy and Innovation, CAE Defense & Security Canada; Hugo Hodgett, Chief Executive Officer, H2 Analytics Inc.; Rami Abielmona, Chief Technology Officer, Larus Technologies Corporation; Scott Arbuthnot, Head of Capability Development, CogSim Technologies Inc. Le to right: Hugh McGuire, Co-Founder and CEO, Bloomsco; Jeff Tasseron, Director, Strategy and Innovation, CAE Defense & Security Canada; Vice-Admiral Ron Lloyd (Ret'd) Chris Pogue, President of Defence and Space at Calian, made the case for Canadian industrial capacity as a readiness issue, not a procurement one. He cited Ukraine's expe- rience as the clearest proof of what is pos- sible: a thousand new businesses formed af- ter the 2022 invasion, building autonomous systems in garages and basements, flying over three million missions. "Had Ukraine not been able to react with a thousand new businesses, they probably wouldn't be there today." On what that means for Canada, he didn't mince words. "If we don't build Canadian capacity and Canadian industrial capacity, then readiness will die. No matter what training we do, we will not have the capacity in Canada to support it, because when the battle starts, things are going to need to change fast." Panel three surfaced the structural bar- riers with equal clarity. Scott Arbuthnot of CogSim Technologies pointed to a practi- cal constraint: simulation capabilities need a designated institutional owner before they can be acquired, and for capabilities that don't fit neatly into existing program offices, finding that owner takes time. His suggestion was to contract simulation as a service rather than acquiring hardware. Hugo Hodgett of H2 Analytics argued the tools to move faster already exist. "There are things that we can do right now for relatively small dollar amounts that ex- ist within policy and within the existing frameworks." The policy framework, he noted, is considerably more flexible in a training and experimentation environment than most people assume. The opportunity is there. The Sovereign Capability Question The closing fireside returned to the forum's central question. Vice-Admiral Ron Lloyd (Ret'd), 35th Commander of the Royal Ca- nadian Navy, argued that the barriers dis- cussed throughout the day trace back to a single underlying problem. Canada's high- level policy commitments, the Defence In- dustrial Strategy, the Defence Investment Agency, the spending commitments, are ambitious. But the operational rules that govern how industry actually engages with government, procurement processes, se- curity clearance requirements, contracting thresholds, have not changed to match. For simulation and training companies try- ing to get capabilities into the hands of the CAF, that gap is not abstract. It is the dif- ference between a capability that gets used and one that does not. The path forward, in his view, is clear. "Once we start chang- ing that foundation upon which all these capital P policies are articulated, then I'll begin to have confidence that that's actu- ally going to take place." Jeff Tasseron, Director, Strategy and In- novation, CAE Defence & Security Can- ada, who moderated the session, put the responsibility back on industry. In his view, operators at the tactical level should not be expected to know what technology can de- liver. That is industry's job. The obligation is on companies in this space to put the art of the possible in front of the people who need it. He was optimistic about what that could mean for Canada. "Training and simulation being identified as a Canadian core capability, if we can find a way to show these strong signals, to prove things out, and to roll these kinds of things out into other ecosystems and other sectors, there's a real potential to grow this sector broadly from Canada to the rest of the world." The stakes of getting it right are clear. The DIS has named training and simula- tion as a sovereign capability area in which Canada already leads. That is not a minor designation. It signals that Canada has a competitive position in a global market, the expertise, the companies, and the in- stitutional knowledge, that other nations are actively trying to build. The question is whether Canada chooses to build on it. Master of Ceremonies, Colonel Andre Dupuis (Ret'd), President, SSCL, closed the day by drawing out what that choice demands. "The word sovereign carries weight. It implies ownership of outcomes. We should act accordingly." The inaugural forum brought together participants from across government, the Canadian Armed Forces, and industry for a day of substantive conversation that the sector has needed for some time. The ground has been laid. The relationships are in the room. The second annual forum will build on both. 30 JUNE/JULY 2026 www.vanguardcanada.com

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