The Department of National Defence, frequently referred to by its acronym DND, is the department within the government of Canada with responsibility for Canada's military, the Canadian Armed Forces. DND is the largest federal department in terms of personnel/employees and budget; there are 55,000 members of the Canadian Forces regular force, 15,000 members of the Canadian Forces primary reserve force, and approximately 20,000 civilian DND support employees.

Until a December 2003 reorganization of the federal government, DND was in charge of emergency preparedness and response in Canada, through the Office of Critical Infrastructure and Emergency Preparedness. DND also holds responsibility for the Communications Security Establishment which is an organization staffed by a mixture of civilian and military personnel.

The current Minister of National Defence is Bill Graham.

DND is headquartered at National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) in Ottawa.

See also

• Canadian Forces Communications Command
• Canadian Forces Training Command
• Military of Canada
• CF Land Force Command
• CF Maritime Command
• CF Air Command
• Disaster Assistance Response Team

External link

• Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces (http://www.dnd.ca)