‘I understand the impatience’: Joly pledges fast action on defence plan with few details

Industry Minister Melanie Joly speaks about Canada's capacity to have a defence sector and how Ottawa set the goal to create 125,000 defence jobs over 10 years.

Industry Minister Melanie Joly insists the federal government will move quickly on implementing its new five-pillar, defence industrial strategy, despite the delays in producing the plan in the first place.

The Liberals’ long-awaited $6.6-billion national defence industrial strategy lays out its plan to prioritize homegrown production, promising to boost the share of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms to 70 per cent, double Canada’s defence exports, and create 125,000 new jobs over the decade.

The federal government was set to release the strategy last year, but it faced multiple delays.

“I understand the impatience,” Joly told CTV Power Play host Vassy Kapelos on Tuesday, when asked why Canadians should trust in the new strategy, despite previously unmet deadlines. “I really, really do. But I think, meanwhile, when we’re talking to people in the industry, they’re saying, ‘wow, you were able to come up with a new defence industrial strategy within a year.’”

• READ MORE: Carney rolls out plans to build up domestic defence sector, add 125,000 jobs

“This is an entire culture change, and this is the first time Canada has a defence industrial strategy, so good news,” she also said, pointing to defence procurement deals the Liberals have signed since last April’s federal election. “I’m as impatient as you, but I really think that things are moving ahead.”

According to a technical briefing by government officials to journalists ahead of the announcement, the number of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms was 43 per cent last year.

The officials also laid out Canada’s current fleet serviceability levels: 60 per cent for the navy, 51 per cent for the army and 42 per cent for aerospace. The 10-year goal is to boost those to 75 per cent, 80 per cent, and 85 per cent respectively.

When asked whether the Liberals plan to disclose specific targets over the next 10 years, to increase transparency around any progress with the defence industrial strategy, Joly wouldn’t say.

• READ MORE: Industry leaders point to potential barrier in PM Carney’s defence industrial strategy

She pointed to the 10-year targets laid out in the strategy, the creation of a Defence Investment Agency, and the appointment of a secretary of state for defence procurement.

“So, we have this entire plan,” she said. “Things are moving ahead, and for the rest, it will be a pleasure to answer all your questions to provide more transparency.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, criticized the strategy for being another layer of bureaucracy impeding faster results.

“The days of having 15- or 20-year procurement processes, they have to end,” Poilievre told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday. “We have to move quickly, and that means limiting all the bureaucracy and empowering our military personnel to make purchases directly of the new technology and equipment that they identify and need with fewer steps.”

The strategy comes amid a now-year-long trade war with the United States — which has pushed the federal government to reduce Canada’s reliance on the southern neighbour — and as Canada pledges to increase its military spending to meet a new and ambitious NATO target of five per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.

You can watch Industry Minister Melanie Joly’s full interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos in the video player at the top of this article.

With files from CTV News’ Brennan MacDonald and Samantha Pope