Ottawa: Defence Minister Harjit S. Sajjan this week announced the conclusion of public consultations on the future of Canada’s defence policy, the largest such efforts in over 20 years.
The Department of National Defence (DND) launched these public consultations on April 6, 2016 to seek feedback from interested Canadians, international allies, and key stakeholders on the type of military Canada needs in order to represent Canada’s interests at home and abroad. Discussions focused on:
- the main challenges to Canada’s security
- the role of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in addressing current threats and challenges
- the resources and capabilities needed to carry out the CAF mandate
DND has received approximately 20,200 submissions to the Defence Policy Review online consultation portal and over 4,700 participants have contributed comments and votes using the online discussion forum.
Moving forward, important choices will be made to ensure that DND and the CAF have what they need to confront new threats and challenges in the years ahead.
Over the coming months, DND will be compiling and reviewing the information received from online submissions, stakeholder roundtables and discussions with Parliamentarians and key international Allies and partners. This will help inform the development of Canada’s new defence policy to be launched in early 2017.
Quotes
