With the launch of Canada’s first national security strategy in over 20 years, The Plan for a Stronger Canada, the federal government has put renewed emphasis on Canadian sovereignty, economic security, and resilience including rebuilding Canada’s military capabilities and strengthening the domestic defence industrial base.
The 2026 federal budget reinforces that direction, with significant defence and security commitments planned over the coming years. But as Canada focuses on building and modernizing the infrastructure needed for the future, the investment also raises a practical question: how will that infrastructure be kept operational for decades?
National security needs reliable, operationally optimized infrastructure for years to come. That requires long-term planning, proactive maintenance, and the operational expertise to keep critical facilities performing when they are needed most.
How do you keep defence infrastructure operational?
Maximizing the long-term value and performance of defence infrastructure requires a lifecycle approach that combines skilled operation and maintenance, reliable asset data, digital tools, and long-term capital planning. Together, these capabilities help teams make better-informed decisions about when to maintain, repair, renew or replace assets, helping keep critical infrastructure reliable, resilient and available when it is needed most.
Building is only the beginning. Roughly a quarter of the Department of National Defence’s existing assets are more than 50 years old, making lifecycle planning and asset stewardship increasingly important.
How those assets are operated, maintained, and renewed directly affects their reliability, performance, and long-term capital requirements. For defence infrastructure, it also affects whether facilities are available when they are needed most.
Resilience requires proactive operations
Defence facilities are supported by a complex network of systems that need to work together. Heating and cooling, electrical systems, plumbing, fire and life safety systems, building controls, and other assets all require ongoing inspection, testing, maintenance, and repair.
A reactive approach waits for something to fail. A proactive approach uses preventive maintenance, supported by reliable asset data and digital platforms, to identify potential problems earlier. Information from asset-condition assessments, work-order histories, building systems, and maintenance records can help facilities teams identify trends, assess risk, and prioritize the work that will deliver the greatest operational and lifecycle value.
Predictive analysis can build on this information by helping teams anticipate potential equipment failures and plan interventions before they become disruptions. This is particularly important in defence environments where downtime can affect essential operations and replacement parts or support may not be immediately available.
Digital tools can provide greater visibility into asset performance, but information alone doesn’t maintain infrastructure. Skilled teams are still needed to interpret the data, prioritize investments, and complete the right intervention at the right time. Combining technology with operational expertise helps facilities teams build resilience into the facility every day.
Northern defence infrastructure raises the stakes
That challenge becomes even greater in Canada’s North. Extreme temperatures, long distances, limited transportation routes, and constrained supply chains can turn what might be a routine maintenance issue elsewhere into a significant operational challenge. The farther a facility is from conventional supply chains and support networks, the more important operational planning becomes.
For facilities teams, that changes how infrastructure needs to be managed. Replacement parts may need to be secured well in advance. Maintenance has to anticipate seasonal access constraints. Supplies and equipment may need to be pre-positioned. The same operational planning applies to the people supporting these facilities. In remote and northern locations, reliable accommodations, food services, housekeeping, utilities, and other essential support services help sustain the workforce responsible for construction, maintenance, and ongoing operations. Together, facilities management and remote hospitality services can create the infrastructure and living environment needed to support long-term operations in challenging locations.
Connected operations support long-term readiness
The complexity of defence infrastructure also makes coordination important.
Maintenance, energy management, building systems, grounds, suppliers, and other services can be managed separately. But when information and responsibilities are fragmented across multiple providers, it can be harder to see how individual issues affect the performance of the facility as a whole.
Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) brings those functions into a more connected operating model. It can provide greater visibility into asset condition, more consistent maintenance practices, and clearer accountability while helping facility managers make better-informed lifecycle decisions.
Planning for long-term operations should begin well before construction is complete.
A strategic defence infrastructure approach includes supporting construction teams with workforce, facilities, and technical capabilities, and providing FM and IFM services once assets become operational.
Considering operations earlier in the infrastructure lifecycle can help ensure decisions made during design and construction support the long-term realities of operating the asset.
From defence investment to defence infrastructure stewardship
Canada’s renewed investment in defence infrastructure is an opportunity to think more strategically about how new and existing assets will perform over their full lifecycle. That means shifting some of the focus from infrastructure investment to long-term stewardship.
Preventive maintenance, skilled trades, asset data, integrated service delivery, and long-term lifecycle planning may not attract the same attention as major construction announcements, but they are essential to protecting the value of those investments. Canada’s defence infrastructure ambitions shouldn’t end when construction is complete.
Long-term defence readiness depends in part on how infrastructure is operated and maintained throughout its lifecycle.
Why the right operational partner matters
At Dexterra, our experience supporting defence infrastructure across Canada, including in remote and northern environments, has shown us that long-term resilience is built through more than infrastructure alone. From skilled trades and proactive maintenance to remote accommodations, food services, and other essential workforce support, these capabilities become especially important in remote locations where operational continuity depends on careful planning and coordination. As Canada invests in the next generation of defence infrastructure, bringing that operational perspective into the conversation early can help ensure today’s investments continue delivering value for decades to come.