It was not by chance Mark Carney chose Montreal as the venue to unveil Canada’s ambitious new defence industrial strategy.
The prime minister made the announcement — a landmark shift that pledges Canada will purchase the majority of its military equipment from Canadian-based firms, to bolster both its sovereignty and its economy — at CAE, the leading pilot training and flight simulator company in the world.
“The obvious example, we’re in the middle of it,” Carney said in February, surrounded by CAE employees and training simulators at the company’s St-Laurent headquarters. “Quebec and Canada have proven strength in aircraft, aircraft engines, parts, simulation.”
The Montreal region is home to Canada’s leading producer of military munitions and hosts the third-largest aerospace hub in the world, employing more than 60,000 people directly and indirectly. Naval shipyards line the St. Lawrence River (one of which just signed an $11-billion contract with Ottawa) and Quebec hosts multiple research centres that bring together leading minds in advanced technologies like AI, photonics and quantum computing that have myriad potential defence capabilities.
We’re talking about missiles and machine guns.
Ruba Ghazal
Québec solidaire spokesperson
Montreal is also considered a top contender to host a proposed international defence bank that would bolster the ability of NATO countries to increase their military spending.
Carney’s promise to increase Canada’s defence-related spending to five per cent of its gross domestic product by 2035 — roughly $150 billion annually — has promoted a surge in interest among Quebec firms eager to reap the dividends.
A 2024 Investissement Québec survey found 470 companies in the province were involved in defence-related industries. This year, a similar review by the government’s economic development agency showed more than 1,200 businesses were either active in defence or interested in becoming so.
It’s not just defence firms that stand to benefit. Boosting the might of military installations and the firms that supply them will require construction work, engineering, maintenance and supplies.
“We need to talk about immigration if we want to be coherent,” says Véronique Proulx, president of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec. But both the federal and provincial governments “are going the other way these days.” Tim Snow / Montreal Gazette
“They will need goods, they will need equipment, they will need toilet paper,” Véronique Proulx, president of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, told The Gazette. While the province’s steel, aluminum and forestry industries are suffering because of the trade war with the United States, “the defence industry is booming, and a lot of companies are positioning themselves to benefit from the investments that will be coming in the next few years.”
Quebec ranked second in the country in 2024, after Ontario, in terms of people employed directly in the defence sector, accounting for 26 per cent of the country’s workforce of 37,700 defence employees.
That number could rise sharply if Canada is able to follow through on its pledge to expand domestic production. In September 2025, Quebec changed its rules on defence financing to allow Investissement Québec to invest in the production of armaments and other defence equipment destined for Canada or allied countries deemed “non-controversial.” That will help Quebec to take advantage of the federal government’s defence plans, as well as that of the European Union, which has promised to pump $1.3 trillion Canadian into rearmament.
Not everyone is happy with governments’ shift toward greater militarization that will involve supplying materials and technologies to be used in warfare. Québec solidaire spokesperson Ruba Ghazal called the province’s shift to defence investments “terrible and worrying.”
“We’re talking about missiles and machine guns,” when the government should be spending more on social needs like education, she said.
Quebec’s defence aspirations could face another major roadblock: a labour shortage. Much of the production involves highly skilled workers and engineers, many of whom are in short supply in Quebec.
“So we need to talk about immigration if we want to be coherent,” Proulx said. But both the federal and provincial governments “are going the other way these days” in terms of admitting workers from abroad, she said. Montreal’s aerospace sector is facing a worrisome hiring shortage as it contends with increased orders coupled with a looming wave of retirements as more baby boomers hit age 65.
Investissement Québec’s Marie-Eve Jean and Renée-Maude Lebrun in their Montreal office. “Our job is to serve as a type of matchmaker between Quebec firms and Canadian or international partners,” Lebrun says. Evan Buhler / Montreal Gazette
Quebec is well situated to benefit relative to other provinces because of its wide range of expertise, said Marie-Eve Jean, Investissement Québec vice-president in charge of exports and procurement. Whereas building and repairing naval vessels makes up the bulk of defence employment in other regions of Canada, “what distinguishes us in Quebec in terms of defence is clearly our aerospace sector, but also all the advanced technologies like AI and quantum computing in which we have innovation zones dedicated to those studies.”
Investissement Québec spent close to a year mapping out the sectors linked to the defence ecosystem or that have the potential to enter the market.
It’s not just Canadian contracts that Quebec companies are seeking, noted Renée-Maude Lebrun, Investissement Québec’s director of export services for markets in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
“Because of our diversity of expertise, particularly in advanced technology sectors, Quebec exports or has the potential to export to many parts of the world,” she said. “Our job is to serve as a type of matchmaker between Quebec firms and Canadian or international partners.”
Canada’s largest boost in military spending since the Second World War has cast a light on the vast network of firms, research facilities and suppliers involved in the defence industry, often not seen by the public. Most work primarily in the civil sector, with defence-linked subsidiaries.
These are the main defence-related industries and technological research hubs operating in the Montreal region and Quebec, and some of the leading companies that operate in them.
Aerospace
Bombardier’s main recent contribution to defence is the modification of its Global 6500 business jets. Chad Slattery / Bombardier
Montreal has the third-largest aerospace hub in the world, after Seattle and Toulouse, France, employing 60,000 people in manufacturing and related fields in more than 235 companies. While most of the industry is geared toward civilian aircraft, many firms have defence contracts as well. The Montreal hub accounts for roughly 60 per cent of Canada’s aerospace production. It includes six “primes” or major contractors: Airbus, Bell, Bombardier, CAE, MDA Space and Pratt & Whitney.
As well, the Canadian Space Agency is in St-Hubert, south of Montreal, and has a mandate to include defence and security operations. Quebec accounts for 40 per cent of Canada’s space sector jobs, Investissement Québec reports, with firms like MDA Space Ltd., Telesat and Xona Space Systems producing communications and navigation satellites and other technologies. In June, Montreal’s MDA Space signed a $688-million contract with the Canadian Space Agency to build a new radar satellite.
Bell Textron Canada
A subsidiary of the parent company based in Texas, Bell Textron Canada was established in Mirabel in 1986 and builds civilian helicopters. It also supplies helicopters for the Canadian Coast Guard, now part of the Armed Forces, and maintains the Royal Canadian Air Force’s CH-146 Griffon fleet of 85 helicopters. It supplies aircraft to the military of Montenegro and Philippines through government-to-government contracts.
Bombardier
The Quebec company’s main recent contribution to defence is the modification of its Global 6500 business jets, partnering with Saab AB of Sweden to add surveillance and radar systems to turn them into airborne early warning systems called GlobalEye aircraft. The planes can detect air, land and sea targets up to 650 kilometres away, useful in remote areas like the Arctic.
Carney announced in late May Canada was in negotiations to buy Saab AB’s GlobalEye military surveillance planes, further expanding Bombardier’s fleet.
Bombardier reported more than $1 billion in defence-related contracts in 2025. It has a defence base of production in the U.S. in Wichita, Kan., and a Bombardier Defense sector that has been operational for decades, custom-fitting its aircraft to serve for airborne surveillance and border patrol in multiple countries.
CAE
The Montreal-based maker of flight simulators employs 13,000 people globally and is the top civilian pilot training company in the world. Started in Montreal in 1947, it expanded rapidly in the 2000s when it opened pilot training at multiple sites worldwide. On the defence side, it offers training services and simulation products for air, naval and land military operations.
Héroux-Devtek
Founded in Longueuil in 1942, it is the third-largest landing-gear manufacturer in the world, with its main facilities in Longueuil, St-Hubert and Laval. It developed the landing gear for the Apollo Lunar Module that touched down on the moon in 1969.
Among other contracts, it builds parts of the landing gear assembly for the F-35 fighter jet, of which 1,300 are already in the air. Roughly 90 per cent of the firm’s sales are outside Canada. With Lockheed Martin predicting it will build more than 5,000 of the jets, Héroux-Devtek will have work for a while to come.
L3Harris Technologies Inc.
The U.S. defence giant is mostly involved in maintenance and servicing of aircraft fleets at its Mirabel facilities. It won a $1.1-billion contract in March for its subsidiary company MAS to maintain the Royal Canadian Air Force’s fleet of CC-330 airbus tanker support planes. In total, it services seven RCAF fleets.
In April, L3Harris MAS Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin to build a maintenance depot for F-35 fighter jets in Mirabel.
M1 Composites Technology Inc.
An aerospace parts supplier in Laval, M1 Composites is an example of the hundreds of small or medium-sized companies that make up the majority of defence suppliers in Quebec. It specializes in making composites and sheet metal, producing and repairing light surfaces and equipment like nacelles (the protective cover surrounding an aircraft engine). Owner Lorenzo Marandola told Canadian Defence Review magazine that demand has increased since Carney took office, but significant bureaucratic and security clearance hurdles remain for smaller companies to get defence contracts.
Top Aces
The Montreal-based company with bases in North America, Australia and Europe was founded by former fighter pilots in 2000. The firm reports it operates the world’s largest privately owned fleet of tactical fighter aircraft. It trains aspiring jet fighters, both in aircraft simulators and jets, which serve as mock enemy aircraft in military training exercises.
Munitions
General Dynamics was granted $1 billion in federal funding to produce explosive munitions. Tim Snow / Montreal Gazette
The making of missiles, rockets and ammunition is one of Quebec’s leading defence industries when measured in terms of how many people the sector employs, the federal government reports.
Although munitions accounts for less than one per cent of the companies involved in the defence sector in Quebec, General Dynamics, the U.S. munitions behemoth, employs 1,300 people at its plants in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Repentigny, just outside of Montreal, and is primed to expand thanks to massive new federal contracts. Quebec had more than 9,000 direct employees in the defence sector in 2024. Roughly 15 per cent of them were employed by General Dynamics.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems — Canada
The Quebec subsidiary of the U.S. firm was granted $1 billion in funding by the federal government in April to produce explosive munitions, primarily 155-millimetre heavy artillery shells, part of Canada’s goal to produce more ammunition domestically. Canada’s munitions stock was significantly depleted due to weapons donations to Ukraine. Historically, most of the plant’s production has gone to the U.S.
The funding includes $356 million to create a factory in Valleyfield to produce nitrocellulose, a highly flammable product used as an accelerant, that is mainly produced in China. Another $642 million will go to a manufacturing plant to load, assemble and pack 155-millimetre shells at the Repentigny site.
Land defence systems
Fat Truck supplies multi-passenger, multi-wheeled vehicles that can transport soldiers or cargo through deep snow and marshy swamps. John Lappa / Sudbury Star
From rubber tank treads to heavy transport vehicles to ATVs for Arctic patrols, Quebec hosts numerous transport industries and suppliers with defence contracts or the potential to adapt their civilian models to military needs.
Cambli Group
The family-owned Quebec designer and producer of armoured trucks mostly used for transporting cash (and also cannabis) is based in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. The firm started producing its Black Wolf tactical response vehicles for the defence market to diversify its offerings as online banking cut into the armoured truck business. The trucks are designed to be relatively nimble for military vehicles, and to offer technological advances like counter-drone capabilities.
Fat Truck
Maker of a wide variety of all-terrain, fat-tire vehicles, Fat Truck builds vehicles in Cowansville and is owned by Zeal Motors, based in Bromont. It supplies multi-passenger, multi-wheeled vehicles that can transport soldiers or cargo through deep snow and marshy swamps, well-suited to Canada’s north. Vehicles can be adapted to include weapon mounts, protective armour and communications equipment.
Galvion
A maker of high-tech military helmets and protective body armour, the company was founded in Montreal in 2002 and has manufacturing divisions in the U.S., Poland and the U.K. The Montreal branch is responsible for R&D, engineering and testing protective headgear that includes communications and vision systems used by military and police forces in more than 100 countries.
Marmen
Founded as a small machine shop in Trois-Rivières in 1972, this family-run business has expanded into a high-precision machining producer for larger firms, designing and building everything from wind towers to steam and gas turbines.
On the defence front, it has been building U.S. submarine components since 2009, as well as propulsion and navigation system components for marine craft, landing gear for aircraft, specialized equipment for satellites and launch pads for space missions.
Rheinmetall Canada
Operating for 40 years in its Quebec branch in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, the subsidiary of the German arms manufacturer specializes in tank maintenance. It has also partnered with Groupe Soucy in Drummondville to make rubber treads for tanks that are much quieter and lighter than traditional steel ones and are used worldwide. The Quebec location has become a leader in autonomous vehicles, converting conventional military transport vehicles into uncrewed ground vehicles.
Naval
L3Harris’s platform management system was designed in Montreal for 300 vessels in 27 navies around the world, the company reports. Tim Snow / Montreal Gazette
As with most regions in Canada, the repair and maintenance of naval vessels were among Quebec’s top defence-related activities in 2024, although east- and west-coast regions ranked higher than Quebec in construction and engineering of ships.
Quebec counts 18 shipyards, including two in the Montreal region (MRW in Mont-St-Hilaire and Navamar in Montreal East). The province’s naval ecosystem means it’s well-placed to take part in Canada’s $100-billion national shipbuilding strategy, established in 2010 to support domestic production and build vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard and Transport Canada. The nation’s purchase of up to 12 diesel-electric submarines from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in a $100-billion deal will likely bring more contracts.
The shipbuilding and maintenance industry creates thousands of jobs in related industries in everything from naval design to electronics, welding, industrial painting and machining. Quebec has several CEGEP, university and vocational college programs dedicated to these fields.
Bronswerk Marine
The first Canadian subsidiary of the Dutch company was built in Brossard in the 1980s to install heating, air conditioning, ventilation and refrigeration (HVAC-R) systems in Royal Canadian Navy patrol frigates. In 2006, the company was bought by Canadian owners and expanded to Halifax, Victoria and Vancouver. It continues to produce HVAC-R systems for navy and coast guard ships globally.
Chantier Naval Forillon
Located in the Gaspé, the company designs fishing boats, tugboats, transport ships and search and rescue boats.
In 2023, it began the construction of Canada’s first hybrid diesel-electric vessel, a fisheries research vessel, for the Canadian Coast Guard.
Davie Canada Inc.
The Davie Shipyard in Lévis, near Quebec City, was one of three in the country designated by Ottawa to receive contracts for the construction of large vessels. In 2023, the now 201-year-old shipyard was given a $3.2-billion contract to build the Polar Max, Canada’s largest icebreaker, to be used in the Arctic. It’s slated to be completed by 2030. Davie also has an $11-billion contract to build six smaller icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard, as well as two ferries.
In 2023, it bought Finland’s Helsinki Shipyard Oy, a leader in Arctic naval construction, opening the door to international and NATO contracts. It also purchased the Gulf Islands Shipyards in Texas to garner U.S. business.
L3Harris
The Montreal branch of the global defence company was selected in the 1980s to supply integrated systems that control propulsion, electrical and auxiliary systems for the Canadian navy’s fleet of patrol frigates. Success in that program led to the expansion of the platform management system designed in Montreal for 300 vessels in 27 navies around the world, the company reports. The firm also provides steering systems for Canada’s Victoria submarines.
Ocean Group
Composed of three shipyards — in Quebec City, Isle-aux-Coudres and Les Méchins in the Gaspé — its defence contracts include the construction of four tugboats for the Canadian Navy.
Drones
ARA Robotics makes drones for cargo drops and surveillance and reconnaissance. HYUNGCHEOL PARK / Postmedia
Quebec’s relatively small drone industry is set to expand after the National Research Council Canada announced in March it will be investing $105 million on a drone research hub to be located in Mirabel and Ottawa. It will include Canada’s first R&D testing site for unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
Investissement Québec reports there are 100 specialized companies in the province developing drones for a wide range of applications. Alma, in the Saguenay–Lac-St-Jean region, is home to the Drone Centre for Excellence, researching and developing remotely piloted aircraft. General Dynamics opened a Centre of Excellence in Sherbrooke for remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) in 2021.
ARA Robotics
The Montreal firm makes drones to be used for cargo drops and surveillance and reconnaissance. Founded by three students from Montreal’s École de technologie supérieure (ETS) in 2014, it has been involved in defence contracts for the Canadian Armed Forces since 2022.
Laflamme Aero Inc.
Founded by brothers David and Enrick Laflamme, who were inspired by their inventor father, Réjean, the company creates remotely flown helicopters specialized to work in difficult weather conditions. In 2021, the company established a partnership with defence giant General Dynamics Missions Systems to aid in the creation of its LX300, the first Canadian-made heavy-lift helicopter drone.
Volatus Aerospace
Based in Ontario, Volatus has a manufacturing and innovation hub in Mirabel, where it produces multiple types of drones for military and civilian use, for deliveries, surveillance, agriculture and mining.
Communications/Optics/Photonics
Marconi Technologies CEO Alain Cohen, left, and Marc Parent, Quebec special emissary for the defence sector, announce the rebirth of the Marconi name under new Canadian ownership in May. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette
The ability to communicate securely, transmit signals to control or disable drones, or detect incoming long-range ballistic missiles that travel at speeds of a mile per second has become a cornerstone of defence, particularly in a country like Canada with vast empty territories. Optical and photonic systems generate or detect light (photons) to transmit information and process data at light speeds, and have multiple defence uses, from surveillance and missile guidance to high-speed secure communications. (They’re also used in your TV remote, your phone’s camera and your internet provider’s fibre-optic network to send data).
Quebec is home to numerous communications industries specialized in military applications and research hubs dedicated to optics, lasers and photonics.
Investissement Québec estimates there are 220 firms in Quebec in the optics and photonics fields, working on anything from sensors for robots to be employed by NASA’s Mars Mission (Teledyne DALSA, with R&D facilities in Montreal and semiconductor manufacturing in Bromont) to fibre laser systems used in biomedical imaging and chemical detection for defence purposes (Genia Photonics in Laval).
Base Camp Connect
The Lévis company produces voice, data and radio communications systems that can connect with old and modern forms of equipment to be used by military, search and rescue and police operations. Last fall, the company signed an agreement with the Canadian Armed Forces to supply up to $100 million in products. It also operates in Europe and Indonesia, and worked with the French national police force to provide secure communications during the 2024 Olympic Games.
The Centre for Optics, Photonics and Lasers
Université Laval created the COPL research centre, dating back to 1989, which includes 21 research teams and 150 graduate students working on optical communications, lasers and fibre optics.
Luqia
Quebec City and Montreal are home to the Luqia innovation laboratory, the largest industrial laboratory in photonics and artificial intelligence in Canada. It was created via the merger of the National Optics Institute (INO, established in 1988) and the Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM), and aims to support developers in the semiconductor, telecommunications and defence sectors with photonics technology. INO has developed technologies used in cameras used in space, scanning parcels for explosives, and hip replacements.
Marconi Technologies
The Montreal company dates back to 1903 and has branches in the U.K. and the U.S. It specializes in developing three types of communications systems — tactical radios, troposcatter systems that use microwave radio signals and satellite communications terminals — primarily used by militaries in the U.S. and Europe.
In May, the firm announced it was coming under Canadian ownership and changing its name from CMC Electronics to Marconi Technologies to honour Guglielmo Marconi, who opened the first Montreal location and who broadcast the first transatlantic radio signals in 1901. It had previously been under U.K. and U.S. ownership.
In June, Carney announced Marconi will be the first Canadian company to be awarded a contract under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) agreement, a European defence procurement program with 150 billion euros in financing at its disposal. The $10-million contract was for tactical radios for Poland.
Research hubs and clusters
The Montreal region and Quebec as a whole are home to numerous research organizations focusing on AI, microelectronics, quantum mechanics, optics and photonics, all with potential defence applications.
Artificial intelligence
Quebec is the host for Scale AI, Canada’s artificial intelligence Global Innovation Cluster, whose goal is to boost industry performance with the use of AI technology.
IVADO
The Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO) is another cross-sectoral research consortium based in Montreal, specializing in AI and data science. Its mandate is to link more than 2,000 researchers worldwide with the business community and agencies that work in transport and logistics, health and sustainable development.
Mila
The world’s largest university research institute that specializes in deep learning includes more than 100 industry partners. Mila was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Montreal. Also known as the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, it was spearheaded by the Université de Montréal and McGill University, along with Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal.
Quantum science
In the rapidly evolving science of matter and energy at atomic and microscopic levels that is powering cybersecurity systems, sensors, supercomputers and GPS navigations systems, the city of Sherbrooke has become a quantum science powerhouse, recognized by the province’s economy ministry as a Quantum Innovation Zone in 2022. The Institut quantique (IQ) research centre at the Université de Sherbrooke has branches in physics, engineering, materials science and computer science.
Investissement Québec reports more than 50 companies in Quebec are involved in quantum science or related technologies.
Bromont is home to the Technum zone, specializing in microelectronics and quantum mechanics. Bromont has been home to high-tech companies including IBM and Teledyne MEMS for more than 50 years.
Sources: Investissement Québec; Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; Canadian Commercial Corporation; Quebec Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy; Canadian Defence Review; Naval Québec