Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy and the Canada Strategy for Nature: Separate worlds or intimately linked and mutually dependent in defence of the nation?

The history of humanity has been one of constant adaptation in response to perpetually volatile and dangerous times. The present is no exception. Historically, the threats have varied over time, with some near constant (e.g., territorial aggression from hostile actors) and others emerging and presenting new challenges (e.g., human induced climate change). The costs of failure to successfully deal with such threats are all too evident in the wrecked societies documented in the archaeological and written records. 

Two new Government of Canada initiatives targeting current global threats have gathered great attention. The first is the Canada Defense Industrial Strategy1, whose launch was followed in short order by a second, the Canada Strategy to Protect Nature2. Both share common themes including protecting Canadian sovereignty, promoting resilience for our nation’s communities and providing benefits to all Canadians through their job creation and economic growth. Both also call for strongly implementing reconciliation agendas respecting the rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis, and developing true partnerships with Indigenous groups as we move forward. And both also have a strong focus on the North.

The two strategies are curious in the way that they for the most part silo from each other. The Defense Industrial Strategy acknowledges that “Canada’s North and the Arctic will be a particular focus, as new threats emerge in part due to a changing climate.” However, the limited discussion of nature-based threats centers mostly around what the effects that warming and melting permafrost will have on infrastructure needed for national defence as well as civilian use. Similarly, the Nature Strategy refers to nature’s critical “essential defences” and “natural defences” that assure healthy environments that support a resilient Canada, with no further discussion of the link to military needs or national defence. This begs the question: shouldn’t these initiatives be strongly linked if the challenges that both are intended to address are existential security threats to Canada, its people, and the world at large?

Recent strategic thinking by the North American defence sector have addressed the security implications posed by a changing natural environment. The 2024 US National Threat Assessment3 flagged climate change as a strategic national defence issue due to direct impacts on the human population through storms, food security and forced migration. However, with a change in administration, the 2025 National Defence Assessment4 dropped all mention of such thinking. Canada’s 2024 revision of its vision for National Defence5 recognized the serious threats that climate change poses for the country especially in the North, including crises for the civilian population (e.g., wildfire impacts) and the need for the Canadian military to be able to respond to such emergencies as needed, albeit as a last resort. 

Canada’s Defence Minister David McGuinty delivered an important speech6 at the 4th Montreal Climate Security Summit. In it he stated: “When it comes to nature and the systems that sustain us — our wetlands, our waterways, pollination — there is no substitute. Our security and our prosperity are fully dependent on a healthy and functioning environment”. The Minister characterized climate change as a threat multiplier driving global insecurity and a danger to all Canadians. He categorized climate resilience as both environmental policy and a national security strategy and noted important gaps in Canada’s approach to caring for nature, in particular the absence of an agency such as a Biological Survey of Canada or the compilation of a general measure of Canada’s natural capital. 

For the North’s Indigenous people, a healthy environment has been a life-or-death issue since time immemorial. Changes to the North’s environment are bringing great stress to the cultures and health of its people7,8. Inuit leaders have worked hard to bring attention to the existential danger of climate change to their people, to Canadians and to the world8,9. The threats to northern natural and built infrastructure are becoming widely understood. Unsafe ice limits movements and melting permafrost is collapsing built structures and eroding coastlines, putting entire villages at risk. Warming’s opening of Arctic shipping lanes brings economic opportunities but may negatively impact critically important marine mammal populations. Protection of the biological resources upon which Inuit food security and culture depend remains of paramount importance7,8.  Terrestrial animal and fish populations that have been staples are changing their abundance, distributions and consequently their availability in ways that are poorly understood. New potential competitors of traditional preferred food species like Arctic charr are appearing and establishing themselves in the North. In the eastern Arctic, Atlantic salmon are extending their range to the north and exotic pink salmon originating from Russian Arctic introductions are also being caught. Everyone is fearful of what might happen if disease-causing organisms extend their range from the south into the north. Answers from new co-developed biological research and conservation efforts are needed to help the people of the North adapt to these new threats. Knowledge is power, and in co-acquiring it for northerners we help defend the front-line defenders of Canadian national sovereignty and territory in the North.

With their shared themes and goals, the Defense Industrial Strategy and the Strategy for Protecting Nature have converged in strengthening and defending Canada and its values. As noted by Minister McGuinty6, protecting and reinvesting in nature is a form of deterrence, and the restoration of ecosystems and natural capital is both strategic preparedness and national defence and security. The nature strategy will draw upon a broad spectrum of Canadian society not directly touched by the defence industrial strategy to expand Canadian presence in the North and help assert sovereignty. These two linked strategies now require significant sustained support as Canada adapts to ongoing volatile and dangerous times. 

References

1 Minister of National Defense. 2026. Security, Sovereignty and Prosperity: Canada’s Defense Industrial Strategy. 58 p. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/corporate/reports-publications/industrial-strategy/security-sovereignty-prosperity.html 

2 Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. 2026.  A force of nature: Canada’s strategy to protect nature. 15 p. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/environment/nature/nature-strategy.html 

3 Office of the Director of National Intelligence 2024. Annual Threat assessment of the US Intelligence Community. 40p. ATA-2024-Unclassified-Report.pdf

4 Office of the Director of National Intelligence 2025. Annual Threat assessment of the US Intelligence Community. 30p. 2025 Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community | Office of the Director of National Intelligence

5 Minister of National Defence. 2024 Our North, Strong and Free. Our North, Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence – Canada.ca

6 National Defence. 2025. Minister McGuinty’s remarks at the 4th Montreal Climate Security Summit. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/news/2025/10/minister-mcguintys-remarks-at-the-4th-montreal-climate-security-summit.html

7 Marquardt, A., C. Jewell and A. S Medeiros. 2024 Inuit perspectives on climate change and well-being: a comparison between urban and remote communities in the Arctic. FACETS 9:1–12 | dx.doi.org/10.1139/facets-2024-0021

8Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. 2016. Inuit Priorities for Canada’s Climate Strategy: A Canadian Inuit Vision for Our Common Future in Our Homelands. 60p. Inuit Priorities for Canada’s Climate Strategy — Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

9 Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. 2019. National Inuit Climate Change Strategy. 44p. https://www.itk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ITK_Climate-Change-Strategy_English.pdf