Kelly McCauley

Madam Speaker, Procedure · 10 wordsI am pleased to rise to speak to Bill C-40, ProcedureClaims · 11 wordswhich is called by the government “strengthening Canada’s defence sector act”. Positioning · 100 wordsIt is really just another example of Liberal failure and incompetence being covered up by creating a new bureaucracy, but this time we would actually get two bureaucracies for the price of one. There has been Liberal failure after Liberal failure for defence procurement, so the Liberals tried to create an extra agency, the DIA, the Defence Investment Agency, to cover up those previous failures instead of addressing them. Now we would have another bureaucracy covering up for the DIA, covering up for the previous failures. There has been from the government a long string of failures for military procurement.Positioning Claims · 76 wordsThere was the F-35, for which the original agreement was famously signed back in the Chrétien days.¹ Then, of course, there was Trudeau saying that we were not going to buy it and then that we were going to maybe buy it. Now the government is saying that we have bought some but that it is going to review whether we are buying others, ²and that it is not really not sure what is going on. Positioning · 13 wordsThere is the handgun debacle. Apart from purchasing a knife for the military, PositioningClaims · 52 wordswhich is probably the lowest of the low-tech weapons, it has taken the government over 10 years to come up with a proper procurement process, such as for a handgun.³ Even after 10 years, it bungled it so badly that the winning bidder ended up suing the government, ⁴which further delayed it. Aside · 9 wordsFunny enough, now the RCMP is actually procuring weapons.Aside Claims · 22 wordsIt started the process in 2015, when the government came to power, ⁵but the government still has not finalized its procurement process. Positioning · 29 wordsOne would think it would just simply piggyback on the same 9mm bought by the armed forces, but that is too easy for the government. There were the frigates, PositioningClaims · 54 wordswhich were many tens of billions of dollars over budget.⁶ If we remember back to the beginning of the frigate process with the national shipbuilding program, part of the tenet was that there would be no federal infrastructure money. The shipyards building them would have to build their own shipyards with their own money. Positioning · 2 wordsWhat happened?Positioning Claims · 49 wordsThe Liberal-connected Irving came hat in hand to the Liberal government, demanding 400 million more dollars, ⁷or otherwise there would be more cost overruns and more delays on the frigates. Despite the national shipbuilding agreement saying there would be no federal infrastructure money, the Liberals quickly cut a cheque. Aside · 9 wordsOne of my favourites is the fixed-wing search-and-rescue CC-295.Aside Claims · 56 wordsIt was purchased with political interference in 2015 from the first public works minister, Judy Foote, who put her finger on the scale to push it toward Airbus so there would be, ⁸as she stated, jobs created for PAL in her riding. This was a plane that was not properly certified yet to fly in Canada— An hon. member: It is. Kelly McCauley: Procedure · 12 wordsMadam Speaker, it is not fully, and the member opposite knows that.Procedure Claims · 15 wordsThe government spent billions on this plane, ⁹and there are still ongoing issues with it. Positioning · 4 wordsThere is also GlobalEye.Positioning Claims · 53 wordsThis is the one the Prime Minister interfered on and personally chose, so he could put hand over heart and say that we are working with our European allies, elbows up, instead of picking something else. Instead of going to a proper procurement process, we have GlobalEye, which is like an AEW&C plane. Positioning · 6 wordsWhat is the problem with it?Positioning Claims · 115 wordsIt is meant for a small European theatre, perhaps not for a country that is, surprisingly, the second-largest country in the world.¹¹ I guess the government forgot that. It has no inflight refuelling capabilities, does not have 360-degree viewing for its radar and does not meet the requirements as set out by the RCAF, ¹⁰yet the government interfered with the procurement process to pick a plane that is not suitable for Canada. What is going to be perhaps the largest procurement ever is submarines. I am hearing now, and the government is free to refute it, that there is a stoppage in negotiations because apparently the German sub does not meet Royal Canadian Navy requirements.¹² Positioning · 50 wordsThe government made a big splash, saying that it was going to do this and bring in so many jobs. It does not seem to focus on delivering what is best for our armed forces at the lowest price. It seems to focus on what is best for photo ops.Positioning Procedure · 9 wordsI want to get back to the CC-295 Kingfisher.Procedure Claims · 34 wordsThis one was famous for its complexity in the RFP process, which was so bloated with the requirements set by the Liberals that there was a legendary viral photo of Airbus delivering its RFP. Positioning · 6 wordsIt had to rent a U-Haul.Positioning Claims · 14 wordsThe RFP was 100,000 pages.¹³ For Leonardo, the competing bidder, it was 180,000 pages.¹⁴ Positioning · 48 wordsSomehow, with an RFP so complicated, set by the government, that it required 180,000 pages, the Liberals missed advising Leonardo that there were some loopholes that they could put in on the bids that allowed Airbus, despite putting in a bid 25% more expensive, to win the deal.¹⁵Positioning Claims · 2 wordsLeonardo sued.¹⁶ Positioning · 11 wordsWhat did the government do instead of fixing its procurement process?Positioning Claims · 15 wordsIt quietly gave Leonardo a sole-source contract, worth billions of dollars, for the CH-149 Cormorant.¹⁷ Positioning · 18 wordsAirbus is happy. Leonardo is happy. Who is not happy? The taxpayers and the RCAF are not happy.Positioning Claims · 48 wordsThe government so overmodified the Airbus plane to justify purchasing. It is overweight and underpowered. Regulations require it to maintain a certain altitude on one engine, but the Kingfisher cannot.¹⁸ The equipment that it added so threw off the centre of gravity that it had to add counterweights, Positioning · 8 wordswhich of course added to the weight issue.Positioning Claims · 36 wordsThere are icing vulnerabilities and modifications that changed the slipstream. As it was, search and rescue techs jumping out of the plane would get dragged into the airstream, bounced along the plane and killed or injured. Positioning · 11 wordsWhat is the Liberals’ solution to their political meddling and incompetence?Positioning Claims · 54 wordsThey would create the Defence Investment Agency. They hire their friend Doug Guzman, friend of the Prime Minister, ¹⁹and give him $1 million a year.²⁰ Despite his comfy role and $1 million a year, he threatens to quit because they cannot get past the sclerotic process of procurement inflicted on the process by Canadians.²¹ Reasoning · 29 wordsTherefore they bring out Bill C-40. Even before the DIA is birthed by royal assent through the BIA, they would basically be killing it, replacing it with Bill C-40.²² Positioning · 29 wordsThe Liberals make a mess, create a bureaucracy to fix the mess and then would create another bureaucracy to fix the bureaucracy that was to fix the original mess.Positioning Aside · 15 wordsIt reminds me of an episode from Yes, Minister, the episode “Jobs for the Boys”.²³Aside Positioning · 34 wordsThe government tries to hide and resolve the financial failure of a mismanaged project. Rather than admitting its mistake and fixing the mistake, it resolves it by establishing a quango. What is a quango?Positioning Claims · 6 wordsIt is a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. The ask · 14 wordsInstead of Bill C-40, the government, I think, should have named the bill “C-quango”. Anecdote · 36 wordsThe famous Sir Humphrey explains that a failing government can always be rescued by establishing a new independent board or agency that allows the government to hand out jobs to its allies, such as Mr. Guzman, AnecdotePositioning · 16 wordswhile adding a new layer of officialdom to oversee the original disaster. Does this sound familiar?Positioning Procedure · 11 wordsYes, it does. I want to quote right from the episode.Procedure Anecdote · 46 wordsBernard says, “Sir Humphrey, this is a bit of a cover-up, isn’t it?”²⁴ Sir Humphrey answers, “Certainly not, Bernard. It’s a responsible discretion exercised in the national interest to prevent unnecessary disclosure of eminently justifiable procedures in which the untimely revelation could severely impair public confidence.”Anecdote Aside · 15 wordsOnce again, quite often it is The Simpsons that is foreseeing the future in politics, AsidePositioning · 36 wordsbut here we have another example in Yes, Minister. We do not need a quango. We do not need a Bill C-40 to fix procurement. We do not need a Defence Investment Agency to fix procurement.Positioning The ask · 12 wordsWhat we do need is for the Liberal government to depoliticize procurement. Positioning · 9 wordsWe need it to get out of the way.Positioning Claims · 27 wordsMy colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound commented that during the Afghan war, in which he served, we were able to purchase howitzers and other weapons quickly through sole-sourcing.²⁵ Positioning · 43 wordsIt can be done, and it can be done right. The government needs to focus on the best equipment for our men and women in uniform, at the best price for taxpayers, not on what is best for its announcements and photo ops.Positioning