Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) is the most ambitious industrial policy in a generation, promising $180 billion in domestic defence procurement, a 240 per cent increase in industry revenues, 125,000 new jobs and more than half-a-trillion dollars in total economic activity by 2035. The government has framed this not merely as a defence plan but as an economic transformation aimed at building a sovereign industrial base free from chronic dependence on foreign suppliers. However, former vice-chief of the defence staff Mark Norman warns that the strategy contains a critical risk: a workforce gap that could cause spending to revert to purchasing from allies, primarily the United States, with Canadian industrial participation as an afterthought.
The workforce gap: an Achilles' heel
According to Norman, the mechanism by which the strategy could fail is not procurement failure or political will but a workforce deficit that the DIS has acknowledged but not yet solved. The 125,000 jobs figure, the strategy’s most visible economic promise, lacks the analytical scaffolding needed to make it credible. The government’s own State of Canada’s Defence Industry report for 2026 puts the total defence sector economic impact at 81,800 jobs, blending direct employment of roughly 36,000 with indirect and induced effects. It is not publicly clear whether the 125,000 represents net new positions above that blended baseline, direct jobs only, or a further aggregate. No public document breaks the target down by occupation, skill level, timeline, or region. There is no published gap analysis comparing today’s workforce to what the DIS’s ten sovereign capability areas will actually require.
Investment without a plan
“Without a defined workforce requirement, the Canada Defence Skills Agenda — the $383 million program meant to build that workforce — is investing without a plan,” Norman wrote in a special to the Financial Post. He emphasized that good intentions and real dollars are not a substitute for a rigorous labour market needs assessment that tells industry, provinces and training institutions what to build toward and when. Such an assessment should exist, be independent and be updated annually.
Ottawa’s Spring Economic Update 2026 acknowledges a structural shortage of more than 20,000 skilled trades workers annually. The government’s response, Team Canada Strong targeting 80,000 to 100,000 new Red Seal tradespeople by 2030-31, lists defence as one of four priorities alongside housing, infrastructure and resource development. Yet Norman argues that without a detailed workforce plan, the DIS risks building a strategy that looks good on paper but fails in practice, leaving Canada dependent on foreign suppliers for critical defence capabilities.
