Industry Minister Melanie Joly said she is working with Defence Minister David McGuinty on a new Defence Industrial Strategy that would allow Canada to meet the new NATO target of 3.5 percent of GDP on core defence spending.
Joly said during an Aug. 20 press conference that given that Canada is the world’s ninth-largest economy, Ottawa will be making “an enormous amount of investment in our Canadian Armed Forces” to meet the defence alliance’s GDP target.
“At the same time, we’ll be able to invest in our industrial capacity, and that’s why I’m working on a new defense industrial strategy in concert with my colleague, the minister of defense,” she said….