OTTAWA — Canada’s biggest arms expo is booming as an uncertain geopolitical climate and the federal government’s drive to rebuild the military combine to light a fire under the defence tech sector.
Hundreds of military equipment companies will jostle to sell their wares this week at CANSEC, an annual event in the nation’s capital that forecasts a 20 to 40 per cent increase in attendance this year.
“There’s a belief this government wants to see action on this file and they’re following their ambitions with some actual concrete actions to make things happen,” said Christyn Cianfarani, president of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, which hosts the show.
“I think that’s what’s giving the signal to the industry.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney has pushed to boost domestic defence spending and to use the sector to help shore up the economy.
That shift in federal priorities under Carney — who campaigned last year on Buy Canadian policies and on reducing the amount of Canadian defence dollars headed to the U.S. — has captured the industry’s attention.
CANSEC organizers say as many as 20,000 registered attendees could be on site at the Cohere Centre, recently rebranded after the Toronto-based AI company bought the name rights.
Last year’s CANSEC saw a record-setting audience of 14,500.
This year’s show is doubling the size of the venue through temporary structures.
“We’re increasing the footprint to accommodate this overwhelming interest that we’re seeing in the defence sector,” Cianfarani said.
“If it continues to grow like this, we will have to be very creative about how we deal with the show.”
Defence has never been a high priority for any federal government since the end of the Cold War.
Former budget watchdog Kevin Page pointed out in a recent interview the federal government quietly eliminated a line-item from the annual budget tracking yearly defence spending — likely out of embarrassment.
Now, that spending is being ramped up to levels not seen since the 1980s.
For the uninitiated, the CANSEC expo is a spectacle where vendors show off their latest defence and security tech. Companies deliver their sales pitches on plush carpets and hand out branded energy drinks. Replica helicopters and fighter jets are set up outdoors while drone prototypes are put through their paces inside.
Everyone comes with a sales pitch. The government, meanwhile, gets a platform to directly address manufacturers and announce procurement decisions.
Companies use CANSEC as a forum to announce partnerships to compete for major defence projects, giving large foreign contractors a chance to show how they’re building domestic companies into their supply chains.
