Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/274231
30 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014 www.vanguardcanada.com Imagine a case where Canada's security relies on a technol- ogy where the industrial decision making is made in anoth- er country such as France, Germany or even countries that are less friendly to Canada. A decision made by corporate decision makers in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton or any other Canadian city is much more likely to align with Canadian security interests than a decision made overseas. For most Canadians, sovereignty and security are rela- tively easy benefits to understand. Economic benefits are much more difficult to quantify and yet can have very large, multiplicative impacts to Canada and, ironically, save a great deal of money in the long-term for Canada. How- ever, these benefits all come down to a single criteria and that is export. Virtually without exception, long-term eco- nomic benefits to Canada from Canadian government pro- curement rely on the industrial sector's ability to not only sell to Canada but then resell and continually develop the capability based on a strong and sustained export business. Once a company or industrial sector in Canada has es- tablished a sustainable export business from Canada, the benefits to Canada start to pile up: • Jobs – clearly direct jobs are created from the original Ca- nadian government procurement; however, many, many more indirect jobs are created based on export business. By David Hargreaves, Vice President, Surveillance and Intelligence, MDA special report Good for Canada Why Strategic Canadian Defence Procurement is T he benefits of strategic Canadian defence procure- ment to Canada can and should be significantly high- er if Canada treats its Defence procurements and Ca- nadian defence industrial sector more strategically. The first two benefits are fundamental needs for Cana- da's population – namely sovereignty and security. Sovereignty refers to the ability of Canada to act com- pletely independently of other nations in its own deci- sion making. In areas that are strategically interesting to Canada's sovereignty, it simply makes sense to sustain a strong Canadian industrial capability to support Canada's operational security and defence forces. For example, the ability of Canada to monitor its own territory and the mari- time regions around its territory (including the Arctic) is a fundamental capability that enables Canada to make not only security and defence decisions but also to provide sup- port to other applications such as environmental monitor- ing, transportation and navigation, and natural resource management. Most Canadians would agree that relying on other nations to monitor Canada's territory is not in Cana- da's best interest. Security is the second fundamental need. The global threat situation today has changed significantly in that threats are far less predictable and can manifest themselves against Canada in many more ways than during past eras.