Justin Ling: Carney’s 2026 budget commits billions to drones, drones and more drones - Toronto Star

It was nearly a decade ago that Ottawa first announced plans to acquire military drones, and it moved with stunning slothfulness to do so. 

Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, and Finance and National Revenue Minister François-Philippe Champagne are seen on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on Nov. 5, 2026.

Justin Ling is a staff columnist for the Star and an investigative journalist based in Montreal. Reach him by email: jling@thestar.ca

The Canadian military currently has thousands of drones at its disposal. “It’s not enough,” a senior commander admits. The Carney government wants to add some zeros to that number: It wants one million drones, at least. 

And in Thursday’s budget, it is committing $2.3 billion to get there.

Expanding the Defence Drone Initiative, first announced by Ottawa this summer, constitutes one of the biggest-ticket line items in this year’s spending plan. And, if done right, it promises to be a major scaling-up of the defence industrial base Prime Minister Mark Carney hopes to see spring up. 

“As the nature of war rapidly evolves, driven by the proliferation of drones, autonomous systems, and weapons in orbit,” the budget document reads, “Canada’s drone capability is more crucial than ever before.” 

The budget is, to some degree, catching up with what’s already been happening within the Canadian Armed Forces. “We’re transforming very rapidly,” Colonel Chris Labbé, Director of Joint Requirements for the Canadian Joint Forces Command, told me this summer.