Expert Response to the Release of Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy

Workforce Acceleration, Executive Leadership & Skilled Labour Readiness

The release of Security, Sovereignty and Prosperity: Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy signals not only a generational reinvestment in Canada’s defence capabilities, but a structural transformation of the national defence workforce.

The Strategy sets ambitious economic and industrial targets, including:

• Creation of 125,000 new jobs across the Canadian economy
• Expansion of defence industry revenues by over 240%
• Increased share of domestic procurement (70%)
• Strengthening sovereign capabilities across aerospace, land systems, digital systems, munitions, space, and autonomous platforms 

These targets cannot be achieved without an equally ambitious workforce strategy.

From a talent perspective, this Strategy represents one of the most significant labour mobilization challenges Canada’s defence sector has faced in decades.

Keynote Executive Search offers the following expert observations and recommendations.

Workforce Development Is Now a Strategic Enabler

The Strategy explicitly introduces a Canada Defence Skills Agenda, focused on:

• Strengthening the defence talent pipeline
• Upskilling and retraining workers
• Expanding apprenticeships and trades
• Growing skilled immigration pathways
• Partnering with provinces and Indigenous communities 

This signals that workforce capacity is no longer viewed as an operational issue—it is a strategic national capability.

For industry, the challenge is twofold:

1. Scale rapidly.
2. Do so within a constrained skilled labour market.

Executive & Technical Talent Shortages Will Intensify

The Strategy accelerates demand in areas such as:

• Aerospace engineering
• Advanced manufacturing
• Cybersecurity
• AI and digital systems
• Armoured vehicle systems
• Munitions and energetics
• Secure infrastructure
• Space systems

Simultaneously, Canada already faces:

• A constrained STEM pipeline
• Retiring senior defence leadership
• Competition from U.S. primes
• Talent migration into commercial tech sectors

Without coordinated recruitment strategies, industry will struggle to meet Government delivery timelines.

Leadership Readiness Will Be a Competitive Divider

As procurement accelerates under the Defence Investment Agency model, firms will require:

• Experienced defence executives
• Compliance-savvy procurement leaders
• ITB and export control specialists
• Program managers capable of rapid scaling
• Board members with sovereign industrial insight

Organizations lacking mature leadership benches will face:

• Contract execution risk
• ITB reporting deficiencies
• Export compliance exposure
• Delays in scaling manufacturing capacity

Executive search must now be aligned with sovereign industrial objectives.

Skilled Trades & Manufacturing Capacity Must Scale Quickly

The Strategy’s emphasis on:

• Land fleet readiness (80%)
• Aerospace fleet readiness (85%)
• Maritime serviceability (75%) 

…requires rapid expansion of:

• Advanced machining
• Systems integration
• Welding and fabrication
• Electronics assembly
• EMI/secure infrastructure construction
• Munitions production

The introduction of new regional defence investment initiatives and apprenticeship services is positive—but implementation will take time.

Industry cannot wait for policy rollout.

Immigration & Security Clearance Constraints

The Strategy highlights skilled immigration as a workforce lever. However, defence-sector hiring faces unique friction:

• Security clearance delays
• Controlled Goods Program compliance
• ITAR exposure
• National security review risk

Recruitment strategies must integrate clearance-readiness planning from the outset.

Speed of hiring will depend on clearance-aligned workforce pipelines.

Indigenous & Regional Workforce Integration

The Strategy emphasizes collaboration with provinces, territories, and Indigenous rights holders 

This presents both opportunity and responsibility.

Industry must:

• Develop Indigenous workforce partnerships
• Structure regional hiring strategies
• Integrate training pipelines with local institutions
• Align with Arctic and Northern infrastructure expansion

Firms that proactively embed these elements into workforce planning will gain strategic advantage in procurement scoring and ITB alignment.

Recommended Industry Response Framework

Keynote Executive Search recommends a structured, phased workforce strategy:

Phase I: Immediate Readiness (0–6 Months)

• Conduct workforce gap analysis aligned to sovereign capability areas
• Audit executive succession planning
• Identify clearance-critical roles
• Develop talent acquisition acceleration plan

Phase II: Strategic Scaling (6–18 Months)

• Build executive pipelines in procurement, ITB, export compliance
• Partner with regional colleges and technical institutes
• Launch apprenticeship and skilled trades recruitment campaigns
• Align immigration strategy with defence skill categories

Phase III: Long-Term Sovereign Talent Architecture

• Establish leadership development programs
• Embed defence governance expertise at board level
• Develop dual-use technology recruitment streams
• Create Indigenous and regional inclusion frameworks

The Risk of Inaction

Failure to address workforce acceleration may result in:

• Inability to meet contract timelines
• Loss of competitive positioning in directed procurement
• Compliance deficiencies in ITB or export reporting
• Increased reliance on foreign contractors
• Missed opportunity to scale under domestic procurement preference

The Government’s policy signals speed.
Industry must match that speed with structured talent acquisition.

Conclusion

Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy represents a generational industrial expansion. Its success will depend not only on capital investment and procurement reform—but on human capital mobilization.

The defence sector must now:

• Professionalize executive recruitment
• Accelerate skilled trades development
• Integrate immigration and clearance planning
• Strengthen Indigenous and regional workforce partnerships
• Build leadership depth aligned with sovereign objectives

Keynote Executive Search stands ready to assist defence firms, primes, SMEs, and innovation hubs in designing and executing workforce strategies that meet the scale and pace of Government expectations.

If helpful, we can provide:

• A Defence Workforce Acceleration Checklist
• A Board Briefing on Executive Risk & Succession
• Or a Sector-Specific Talent Strategy Framework