Op-Ed: You want to talk defence? Talk energy.

By Marla Orenstein and Ashley Meller

When the Prime Minister launched Canada’s first Defence Industrial Strategy a few weeks ago, it was an appropriate response to a rapidly shifting geopolitical reality. 

But alongside the important elements that the strategy contained, there was a conspicuous, and potentially even fatal, absence: energy. Specifically, domestic energy sovereignty didn’t merit a mention. But a Canadian defence strategy falls short if the fuel for your fighter jets comes from US refineries, power for your Arctic radar defence systems depends on diesel flown in from the south, or if the centralized electricity grids supplying your military installations can be bricked by a cyberattack.

Canada’s energy vulnerabilities are systemic, built into almost every facet of production and consumption. We export enormous volumes of oil but lack the refining capacity to keep ourselves fuelled without imports. This deficiency is also the reason we don’t maintain a strategic petroleum reserve — unlike the United States or most European nations, which mandate 90 plus days of reserves by law. There’s no point when our reserves would just be used to feed refineries south of the border.

Our electricity grids have little East-West transmission connecting demand from other provinces; instead, our electricity exports mostly supply American networks. And remote Arctic communities, where our sovereignty is most vulnerable, run almost entirely on diesel that needs to be shipped in by sea or air.

Energy sovereignty and Canada’s national security are not parallel tracks. They are one and the same. This means that building defence capability requires an unflinching focus on energy infrastructure and the supply chains that underpin it. It means building domestic refining capacity for both traditional and sustainable aviation fuels and marine diesel, sized to ensure national security needs are met. It means deploying small modular reactors — where Canada already has world-class technology and the largest uranium reserves on earth — at critical infrastructure sites to provide reliable, zero-emission power that cannot be interdicted or held hostage. It means accelerating East-West electricity transmission infrastructure so Canada can reroute power domestically if the geopolitical situation demands it. And it means decentralizing energy supply onto microgrids with long-duration storage for critical facilities—hospitals, ports, military bases, government continuity sites — and to keep communities powered, so that a cyberattack or other supply disruption doesn’t spiral into a national crisis.

This approach also yields ‘no-regrets’ moves that build resilience against a broader range of threats, including floods, wildfires, biodiversity loss, and food security. It also supports decarbonization efforts, as many of the technologies that provide the greatest energy security also happen to be the lowest-emission ones.

Such an approach also supports Canada’s economic interests. The Defence Industrial Strategy rightly identifies critical minerals as a priority. But simply extracting and exporting raw ore is a missed opportunity. Processing those minerals into battery-grade materials and advanced components within Canada — creating the supply chain our allies are desperate to build outside of Chinese control — is simultaneously a defence strategy, an economic strategy, and a climate strategy.

These are just a few examples of what genuine strategic autonomy looks like.

Prime Minister Carney’s government deserves credit for the seriousness of Tuesday’s announcement. The creation of the Defence Investment Agency, the commitment to Canadian procurement, the focus on innovation and intellectual property sovereignty — these are the right instincts. But the strategy is flawed without an equally serious commitment to securing the energy infrastructure that makes our defence capability in various scenarios real rather than theoretical.

Canada holds one of the most enviable strategic resource positions of any nation on earth: the world’s largest uranium deposits, world-class hydropower and other renewable infrastructure, the critical minerals for technologies our allies need, and vast natural gas reserves that can bridge the transition. A country that can convert these into a coherent, integrated strategy — one that provides domestic energy resilience, export leverage with trusted partners, and a credible path to net-zero — will be among the most strategically indispensable nations of the coming century.

So let’s not allow a good crisis (or the strategy’s accompanying half-trillion dollar investment) go to waste. As the Prime Minister said, “The work of defending Canada is the work of building Canada.” Let’s make sure seizing the opportunity not only shores up our defences, but also builds Canada’s resilience on multiple fronts.