Liberals revive campaign pitch for centralized military procurement agency

In the face of annexation threats from the Trump administration and a Canadian public increasingly demanding the federal government buy less from the United States, the Liberals have resurrected a previous campaign pitch to create a standalone defence procurement agency.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney highlighted the pledge during a campaign stop in the Montreal area on Monday at the headquarters of Quebec-based aircraft-maker Bombardier.

He promised to modernize procurement rules and amend legislation and regulations as required to “centralize expertise from across government and streamline the way we buy equipment for the military.”

During the 2015 campaign, the Liberals pledged to modernize defence purchasing. 

Four years later, they promised to establish Defence Procurement Canada to “ensure that Canada’s biggest and most complex defence procurement projects are delivered on time and with greater transparency to Parliament.”

Risk of slowing down procurement

Carney didn’t address why previous efforts at major reforms fell by the wayside, but acknowledged how “we need to distinguish between announcements and what actually happens and how you actually get results.”

The idea of a single point of accountability for military equipment purchases — instead of a multi-department approach — has been around since at least 2008 and generally supported by some defence observers and former officials as a more efficient way of delivering on projects, some of which have taken decades to see through to completion.

The head of the country’s defence industry association sounded cautious. 

“This isn’t the first time a centralized procurement agency has been floated,” said Christyn Cianfarani, president of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI).

“It’s a tempting solution, because it seems relatively simple on its surface, but previous governments have never found a way to make it work.”

She said such an agency would require “huge” changes to the procurement process. 

“The growing pains during that transition could actually slow down procurement at a time when Canada needs to speed it up,” she said.

WATCH | Carney says Liberal government would boost defence spending: 

Carney says Liberals would bolster military, update defence procurement

Mark Carney, speaking from Dorval, Que., on Day 23 of the election campaign, said a Liberal government would establish a new agency for defence procurement to protect Canada’s sovereignty — and prioritize Canadian content whenever possible.

On Monday, Carney once again pushed the notion that Canada must diversify where it buys its military equipment. 

“The priorities of the United States, once closely aligned with our own, have shifted,” Carney said in his speech. “For too long, our military has been underfunded and overly reliant on the United States.”

Prior to the election, Carney ordered Defence Minister Bill Blair to review the ongoing purchase of U.S.-made F-35 fighters.

The air force requires 88 advanced warplanes to replace the four-decade-old CF-18s. 

The federal government has committed and paid for the first tranche of 16 and suggested it could perhaps fill the rest of the need by pivoting to another aircraft-maker and running two fleets of fighter jets.

As part of the Liberal plan, the party says if it forms government it would also establish research and engineering to have made-in-Canada innovative solutions in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and cybersecurity. 

Last summer, Canada’s Defence Department and military admitted in a long-awaited review that their approach and implementation toward the use of artificial intelligence is “fragmented” and unco-ordinated. The department’s new strategy was candid, saying neither the Department of National Defence (DND) nor the Canadian Armed Forces are “positioned to adopt and take advantage of AI.”