Canada First Defence Strategy


The Canada First Defence Strategy was the military recruitment, procurement, and improvement strategy of the former Canadian government of Stephen Harper to improve the overall effectiveness of the Canadian Forces. The strategy aimed to enforce Arctic sovereignty with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Coast Guard. CFDS was superseded by the defence policy of the Liberal Government introduced in 2017 entitled, Strong, Secure and Engaged.

Purpose

The purpose of the Canada First Defence Strategy was to give Canada a modern military with clearly defined missions and capabilities. The strategy focused on many key military functions and operations and on improving the equipment and fleets that the Canadian Forces operates. Many of the equipment capability objectives of CFDS were continued under the subsequent SSE.

Missions

The Canada First Defence Strategy was focused on six core missions as level of ambition for the Canadian Forces. According to the strategy the forces must be able to support all of the following operations and if necessary, support them all simultaneously.
The Canada First Defence Strategy also sought to increase the number of personnel in the Canadian Forces in order to improve the military's operational effectiveness. In 2008, the Canadian Forces had approximately 65,000 active personnel and 26,000 reserve personnel. However, the CFDS planned to increase personnel levels to 70,000 full-time and 30,000 reserve sometime in the next 20 years, with an increase to 67,000 full-time personnel by 2009/2010, 68,000 by 2011/2012 and 69,300 by 2014/2015. The reserves were to reach 27,000 by 2011/2012 and 28,000 by 2014/2015. Some of this growth was slowed in the aftermath of the end of Canadian involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

Equipment improvement and replacement

The CFDS provided a plan to invest $15 billion on the improvement and replacement of Canadian Forces' major fleets and equipment, to include:
Another $20 billion was committed for equipment replacement and improvement in the future, to include:
The Canada First Defence Strategy was also primarily focused on the funding for the Canadian Forces, and the strategy outlined plans to increase funding for the Canadian Forces from $18 billion in 2007–2008 to over $30 billion in 2027–2028. The overall funding and investments in the forces will amount to $490 billion over the 20-year period of the strategy. This projected spending increase was slowed by the Harper government after the end of the war in Afghanistan.