TORONTO — As Canada moves to reduce its dependence on American military suppliers, the push is on display inside a Toronto garment factory. <\/p>\n
Hunched over sewing machines, two workers rapidly stitch together pieces of camouflage-patterned fabric and Velcro strips. In the next room, workers snip stray threads as they inspect the finished product: helmet covers for the Canadian military.<\/p>\n
The factory is assembling uniforms for Wuxly, a luxury parka maker that is among a flurry of Canadian companies branching into defense contracting. As Canadian military spending surges, others are developing remote sensors for the country’s vast Arctic region, making drones to resupply soldiers, and building autonomous robots.<\/p>\n
The boom in the defense sector reflects Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s vow to strengthen the country’s economic self-sufficiency<\/a> amid fraying relations with Washington, including a fresh escalation<\/a> this week with new rounds of tariffs.<\/p>\n Canadian startups and established companies, alongside firms in Europe, are set to benefit from tens of billions of dollars in extra defense funding, driven partly by pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to contribute more to NATO<\/a>. Canada’s investment remains small compared with the Pentagon’s budget, but its strategy aims to boost domestic defense capabilities, and not just U.S. contractors.<\/p>\n A defense industrial strategy released earlier this year by Carney<\/a> represents a generational shift for Canada, which invented modern peacekeeping<\/a> and had long been content to remain in the shadow of its southern neighbor on defense matters.<\/p>\n The defense plan earmarks an additional $60 billion in funding over the next five years, and the government has promised support for domestic businesses to sell into defense and security supply chains. Currently, Canada spends about $36 billion to $43 billion on national defense. <\/p>\n \u201cThe scale of investment that is involved is quite significant by Canadian standards, certainly in peacetime,\u201d said Philippe Lagass\u00e9, an associate professor at Carleton University specializing in defense policy.<\/p>\n The defense boom is \u201cquite evident at all the events we\u2019re at. Every defense show (is) sold out. Lots of new companies and (other) industries coming into the (defense) industry, getting involved,\u201d said Wuxly founder and CEO James Yurichuk. <\/p>\n Wuxly’s helmet covers, destined for the Canadian Armed Forces, allow soldiers to attach call sign patches or gear like lights, cameras and beacons. The company also makes military parkas and tank covers and has been supplying Ukraine’s military with gear, including 40,000 female uniforms \u2014 one of the company’s specialties.<\/p>\n Carney has called for upgrading the Canadian military\u2019s Arctic capabilities<\/a>, increasing spending by tens of billions of dollars to assert sovereignty over the vast but sparsely populated and increasingly contested region. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of innovation that can create advantage in the North, and with the Arctic region being so important, we\u2019ve got to clothe our soldiers properly,” Yurichuk said. <\/p>\n A major part of the strategy is diversifying away from U.S. defense contractors. It focuses on tapping a wider global pool of suppliers of military hardware \u2014 and fostering domestic defense supply chains.<\/p>\n The strategy envisions investments amounting to more than half a trillion dollars, creating 125,000 jobs and tripling the size of the country\u2019s defense industry over the next decade by steering contracts to Canadian companies. It calls for accelerating research and development and prioritizes developing key \u201csovereign capabilities\u201d including aerospace, robotics and unmanned systems.<\/p>\n As Canada pursues partnerships with other allies, in addition to the United States, Ottawa has announced deals this year to buy radar planes<\/a> from Sweden\u2019s Saab over American competitors and submarines<\/a> from Germany\u2019s ThyssenKrupp.<\/p>\n Canadian startups like New Frontier Robotics also are lining up to play a part.<\/p>\n \u201cThere definitely is money in play,\u201d said Nikhil Malhotra, co-founder of the two-person company. \u201cWe see it. Obviously, we are going for it.\u201d<\/p>\n The company is working on a mobile manipulator robot \u2014 essentially a robot arm on a mobile platform \u2014 powered by artificial intelligence that could have both military and civilian applications, in what’s known as dual-use technology. <\/p>\n The initial plan was to target manufacturing, with robots working autonomously between assembly lines, but potential customers suggested there was also a growing need from the defense industry. Robots could also be used for support roles at military bases, Malhotra said. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you have infrastructure up in the Arctic that needs maintenance, obviously the climate is very dangerous. Are you really willing to risk an operator\u2019s life? The answer is no. It\u2019s better to put this thing on,\u201d said Malhotra, whose company is based temporarily at a robotics lab at the University of Waterloo, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Toronto.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s efforts to modernize its war machine still face big potential challenges, including the risk that opposition parties target Carney\u2019s spending plans in future elections.<\/p>\n