On Nov. 5, the federal government released a budget promising significant and sustained defence spending.
That same day, hundreds of tech entrepreneurs gathered in Ottawa to discuss how to get in on the action.
SAAS NORTH is an annual gathering of Canada’s tech community where attendees pitch ideas, raise money and network. This year’s gathering took place Nov. 4 and 5 at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa.
In a sign of how intertwined defence and technology have become, the conference included a day-long summit dedicated entirely to defence. The summit included panel discussions on Canada’s procurement process, dual-use technology and public sentiment towards Canada’s military buildup.
In one such panel, Eliot Pence, founder and CEO of defence industry darling Dominion Dynamics, noted how much has changed in recent years.
“Defence was sort of demonized for two decades,” said Pence, whose Ottawa-based company builds sensor networks and drones to monitor Canada’s Arctic.
“The level of ambition [for Canada’s military and defence industry] … is immense and super exciting,” he added.
Major investments
In the 2026 budget, the federal government projected it would spend about $54.6 billion on core defence in 2026-27, more than double the spending of five years ago.
Ottawa has pledged to spend five per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, in line with the NATO target. Of this, 3.5 per cent is to be spent on core defence, and 1.5 per cent on defence-related infrastructure.
The Canadian military is increasingly looking to enter contracts not just with big firms like Bombardier, but also with small- and medium-sized enterprises, Lt.-Gen. Darcy Molstad said during a panel discussion on global defence contracts. (A lieutenant-general is the second highest level of command in the Canadian Armed Forces.)
“A lot of the capabilities that I’m interested in are the lower-cost, attributable, reusable capabilities,” Molstad said.
“Watch this space, because we’re going to be issuing requests [for proposals], it’s going to be a regular drumbeat. And I hope you’re ready to go fast.”
At the same time, Molstad acknowledged that the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces would need to change how they operate.
“As we all know, the government procurement, especially in Canada, is extremely risk-averse,” Molstad said.
“We do have to figure out how to shift that mindset.”
He noted there may be some avenues where procurement is able to move more quickly than others.
He cited as one example the Defence Drone Initiative, a program that looks to ramp up development, testing and production of autonomous systems for the Canadian Armed Forces. The 2026 budget committed $2.3 billion to the initiative beginning in 2027-2028.
Katheron Intson, co-founder and CEO of Sentinel Research and Development, told Canadian Affairs at the conference that, with drone and weapons production, “industrial capacity is everything.”
“[Ukraine has] been able to hold and slow down the Russian assault only because they are able to produce their own weapons,” said Intson, whose Hamilton-based company manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles.
In May, Sentinel R&D announced a drone production agreement with Ukrainian defence company Airlogix.
Molstad, a former fighter pilot, said military personnel also need to be prepared to innovate quickly in the future.
“We need soldier-innovators so that they’re also doing that innovation on the battlefield with you, in some cases, with the industry in order to deliver the capability,” Molstad said.
“That’s the type of people we need. Not necessarily as somebody who’s been to three or four different wars, but somebody that just understands how to be agile and adaptable.”
But Maj.-Gen. Stéphane Masson cautioned that soldiers have limits.
“One of the aspects that keeps me up at night is the cognitive overload to our soldiers,” said Masson, who sat on a panel discussion on the future of warfare and autonomous systems in the Canadian Army.
“There’s so much technology, there’s so much data … but there’s still the same human brain that needs to process that at 2 a.m. [while] cranky, wet and tired.”
Dual use
Another focus of the day’s discussion was dual-use technologies.
In the panel discussion on the future of the Canadian Army, Lt.-Gen. Michael Wright urged companies to explore whether they could shift their operations to include defence.
“Some companies that can solve our problems may not think of themselves as defence companies today and that’s why events like this matter,” Wright said.
“The best answer to a military problem will not always come from a traditional defence company.”
Conference attendees Andrew Redden and Scott Burke said they switched from the crowded fintech industry to defence with the launch of their Halifax-based drone manufacturer, Last.
Burke, Last’s COO, told Canadian Affairs the relationship between developers and users is “not very different at all” from what he saw in fintech.
And the “move fast and break things” mentality for which the tech world is known could work well in a defence industry committed to moving quickly, he says.
“What we really bring to the table is that start-up mentality … to be able to take risks, be able to fail, but not in the field,” Burke said.
Public sentiment
The air of giddiness at the summit may not be shared by all Canadians.
Last July, about two-thirds of Canadians said they supported Canada’s increased defence spending, while one-third said they were opposed, according to Abacus Data.
Several conference speakers noted some Canadians might be worried by certain defence technologies, such as autonomous weapons.
“There’s some things that we know that we need. But then, you know, the Canadian population, they realize that this is going to kill people,” Brig.-Gen. Catherine Marchetti said during the panel discussion on the future of warfare.
But Intson, of Sentinel, says Canadians need to wake up to the dangers Canada faces.
“I think we need to start being honest with the public about how far behind we are on some things,” Intson said.
She noted some of Canada’s adversaries are developing military capabilities that exceed not only Canada’s capacity, but also much of NATO’s capabilities as a whole.
“If we take a look at how much our adversaries are producing certain types of systems … I think that that in itself should unveil the threat,” she said.
