Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy 2026: What It Means for Canadian Manufacturers and How to Get Ready

On February 17, 2026, Canada released Security, Sovereignty and Prosperity: Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy, a long-term plan to strengthen Canada’s defence industrial base and increase the share of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms.

For Canadian manufacturers, especially metal manufacturers, fabricators, machine shops, and industrial service providers, the signal is clear: more opportunity is moving into Canada, and readiness will decide who wins.

This article explains:

1. What the strategy is changing
2. What “contract-ready” operationally means for manufacturers
3. How BOMS helps Canadian manufacturers meet those expectations with less admin and more control

1) What’s changing in plain terms

Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy lays out five pillars, with a major operational implication for industry: procurement is being refocused to build domestic capability, partner with allies when needed, and buy off-the-shelf only under conditions that reinforce Canadian control and domestic benefits.

A key part of the plan is the Defence Investment Agency (DIA), designed to accelerate procurement and coordinate across government.

Canada is also emphasizing growth for small and medium-sized businesses through targeted supports, including:

• BDC’s Defence Platform (up to $4B) to finance and advise companies in defence and national security
• Regional Defence Investment Initiative ($357.7M) delivered by Regional Development Agencies to help businesses integrate into defence supply chains

If you are a Canadian manufacturer, this is not just “more defence news.” It’s a shift that can influence which suppliers get selected and how primes evaluate subcontractors.

2) The hidden requirement: proving operational maturity

Manufacturers often focus on the visible requirements: capability, price, lead time, and capacity.

Defence and dual-use supply chains add a second layer: proof.

Proof that:

• Work is executed consistently
• People are trained and competent for the tasks they perform
• Safety issues are recorded and closed out with corrective actions
• Maintenance is planned and documented
• Compliance tasks are tracked with evidence available on demand
• Purchases and approvals are traceable

The strategy itself highlights the need to improve readiness and sustainment outcomes (for example serviceability targets) and to strengthen domestic capacity. That tends to increase pressure on suppliers to run clean, auditable operations.

A practical readiness checklist

If you want to be taken seriously as a defence or dual-use supplier, you should be able to produce these quickly:

Safety and corrective actions

• Incident and near-miss reporting
• Assigned actions with due dates and closure evidence
• Trend reporting by site, hazard, root cause

Maintenance discipline

• Work request to work order workflow
• Priorities, approvals, assignment, completion notes
• Asset history and downtime tracking

Training and competency

• Role-based training requirements
• Proof of completion, renewals, and version control for procedures
• Visibility into who is eligible to perform which work

Compliance evidence

• Calendar of obligations and renewals
• Evidence attachments tied to each requirement
• Audit trail of who did what, and when

Procurement traceability

• Requisitions, approvals, and purchasing documentation
• Links between maintenance or compliance events and purchases

If producing this evidence takes days, opportunity is lost. If it takes minutes, you become an easy “yes.”

3) Where BOMS fits: the operations backbone manufacturers use to scale compliance and readiness

BOMS (Business Operations Management Solution) is a cloud-based operations platform built for industrial and manufacturing organizations. It connects safety, maintenance, training, compliance, and procurement workflows into one system so leaders get visibility, and teams can execute consistently.

We are already helping Canadian manufacturers reduce admin load and improve operational control by standardizing day-to-day workflows and making records audit-ready.

How BOMS maps to the readiness checklist

Safety Observations and Incidents Reporting

• Structured reports, configurable lists (hazards, root causes, etc.)
• Action items and follow-through tracking
• Consistent report numbering for traceability

Maintenance Management

• Work Requests and Work Orders with approvals and notifications
• Statuses, prioritization, dashboards, and history
• Cleaner maintenance evidence for customers and auditors

Training Management

• SOP and Work Instruction tracking with version control
• Competency records tied to roles and job requirements
• Faster onboarding and clearer proof of readiness

Compliance Management

• Due-date tracking with reminders
• Evidence and files attached to each compliance event
• Calendar and list views to stay ahead of deadlines

Procurement Requisition

• Simple purchase request and approval flow
• Better traceability for spend that is linked to jobs, assets, and compliance events

The outcome is simple: less scrambling, more proof, and faster scale.

4) Why this matters now: capital and programs are aligning to help SMBs scale

Canada’s strategy explicitly points to new and expanded supports to help SMBs integrate into defence supply chains, including BDC’s Defence Platform and the Regional Defence Investment Initiative.

When funding and opportunity increase at the same time, the winners are usually the companies that can implement operational structure quickly without bogging down the shop floor.

That’s the niche BOMS is built for: practical workflows that teams adopt, with evidence that leadership can trust.

5) Next steps: a simple 30-day approach for manufacturers

If you want to align your operations with what defence and dual-use supply chains expect:

Week 1: Baseline

• Pick one site or one product line
• Map your current safety, maintenance, training, and compliance workflow

Week 2: Standardize

• Implement consistent reporting and numbering
• Define statuses, approvals, and notifications

Week 3: Evidence

• Attach the right files to the right records
• Make compliance and training proof easy to retrieve

Week 4: Visibility

• Set dashboards by status, priority, and due dates
• Review trends and bottlenecks with supervisors

This builds operational credibility fast and makes you easier to be selected as a supplier.

Take Action Today

If you are a Canadian metal manufacturer or industrial services firm and you want to benefit from the shift created by Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy, BOMS can help you get ready quickly.

Contact us for a walkthrough tailored to your shop and the evidence your customers expect.