Chris d'Entremont

In response to a question from Martin Champoux

“It takes too long for our military to buy equipment, from ships to socks. We need a better system that invests in Canadian businesses to make what our soldiers need here at home.”

“Madam Speaker, I am asking myself the same question as my Bloc colleague: Is everything working the way it should right now? It takes years and years to acquire new equipment, whether ships, aircraft or even something as basic as the socks soldiers put on before lacing up their boots. We need a new approach that takes into account the potential within supply chains across Canada as well as the opportunities available in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces so we can manufacture more equipment here at home. The current system is not necessarily the best one. We must invest in a procurement process that meets the needs of the Canadian military.”

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In response to a question from Sherry Romanado

“We need to help Canadian businesses build more equipment for our military. Past shipbuilding projects show that investing in our own companies works. We should do the same thing with other local businesses to give our armed forces what they need.”

“Madam Speaker, this is the crux of what we are trying to do. As I said in the beginning of my speech, the question we are really trying to answer is, how do we build capacity within Canada? Let us go back a number of years to when we talked about the navy’s requirement for new frigates. In order to build those, we had to create a whole new system. The Irving shipyard, or the “ships here now” process we went through, created a $1 billion system. I thank the previous government for doing that and thank this government for its continuation of that, but we need to build true capacity within our system. It is no different from working with A.F. Theriault, the airport in Yarmouth or other companies in South Shore—St. Margarets that can build the capacity and equipment that our armed forces so dearly need.”

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“I want the House to pass this bill. Buying military gear takes too long and involves too many departments. This bill sets up a new Crown corporation to make buying, making, and investing in defence equipment faster. It also helps Canadian businesses get the money they need to build things for our military.”

“Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today on behalf of the people of Acadie—Annapolis at second reading of Bill C-40, the strengthening Canada’s defence sector act. I will be sharing my time with the awesome member for South Shore—St. Margarets. I want to begin by offering my sincere condolences to family and friends of the Canadian Armed Forces members lost at CFB Wainwright. May those members rest in peace. My thoughts are also with those members who are still in hospital. I wish them a full and speedy recovery. I am part of a family that includes a CAF member, and I know that my brother served many times at CFB Wainwright. I think he said he actually trained there more than seven times and really felt bad about what happened there. We hope, of course, that everyone recovers well. Bill C-40 is personal for our region, because Acadie—Annapolis is proud to be home to 14 Wing Greenwood, the largest air base in Atlantic Canada. Greenwood trains long-range patrol crews, conducts regular surveillance over the Atlantic, supports global strategic airlift, and is the primary air search and rescue unit on Canada’s east coast. Over the past year, the government has backed Greenwood with new hangars for the new P-8A Poseidons, which replaced the aging Aurora aircraft; the new remotely piloted aircraft systems program; and new housing on the base. There is more coming for CFB Greenwood. This investment matters, not just for our safety on the east coast but just as much for the jobs and businesses of the Annapolis Valley and all of Nova Scotia. I will go back to the bill that is before us and what it means for Greenwood, the valley and, of course, Nova Scotia. At its core, the legislation asks a very straightforward question: How do we make sure that Canada’s growing investment in defence translates into real capacity, real security and real economic opportunity for Canadians, including communities such as ours? The security environment is changing rapidly. Our allies are increasing defence spending, and governments everywhere recognize that a strong military depends on a strong and resilient industrial base. For Canada, that means more than committing resources. It means making sure our institutions can put those resources to work. For too long, defence procurement has been marked by complexity, multiple departments, overlapping authorities and lengthy approval times. Each part has an important job, but together those processes can slow decisions, create uncertainty for industry, and delay essential capacities. We have talented people across the system, and we have too often asked them to deliver complex projects and processes that are not built for today’s pace and scale. Bill C-40 proposes a different approach. First, it will establish the Defence Investment Agency as a crown corporation within the national defence portfolio. The agency was created last October as the departmental agency. That was an important first step. This bill would take the next one: a permanent institution with its own board of directors, commercial expertise, and greater authority to negotiate and manage major contracts. Legally, it would be the Canadian corporation for defence investment, carrying on as the DIA. Just as important, it would bring procurement, production and investment together in one organization. Procurement is how we acquire what our armed forces need. Production is how we make sure that capacity exists to build and sustain them. Investment is how we build industrial capabilities Canada will need in the years ahead. That matters because a purchase order does not build a factory, a contract does not create a skilled workforce, and a promising technology does not strengthen our security until it can be produced, tested, delivered and sustained. That is why the bill provides the agency with a broader range of tools, including loans and advance payments, subject to the necessary approvals, to help Canadian businesses, including those in Nova Scotia, overcome financing barriers and scale up production. Consider a company from Nova Scotia. Last Thursday, I spoke with representatives from A.F. Theriault & Son, the oldest and largest privately owned vessel builder in Nova Scotia. Since 1938, it has built more than 1,000 vessels in wood, steel, aluminum, fibreglass and advanced composites. It has delivered over 750 unmanned surface target drones to the Canadian military, to the navy. It can respond to the need, but it needs to modernize and expand. A loan or an advance payment is the kind of tool that could help a company like that get there. It is exactly the kind of Nova Scotia business the DIA is being built to support. This does not mean that government would be replacing private investment. It means using private investment strategically to attract private capital and build on capabilities that our security depends on. The second part of the bill would amend the Defence Production Act and rename it the defence and national security production and procurement act. It would broaden the framework to address modern concerns, including economic security and strategically important industrial capacity. It would provide flexibility for certain procurement decisions, including urgent operational requirements. It would allow the minister, in specified circumstances, to award a contract without a competition, where that is necessary to support a sector of the economy that is important to national defence or national security. Members will no doubt want to examine this provision closely and rightly so. The argument for it is simple. In a crisis, or when critical domestic capacity is under threat, a lengthy competitive process may cause us to lose the very capacity we seek to preserve. It is in committee that these protection mechanisms must be put to the test. Flexibility must come with responsibility. The corporation would have its own board and be subject to governance and financial reporting requirements. It would report through a new associate minister of National Defence for procurement, who would answer to Parliament for the agency and who could direct its work. The Canadian Armed Forces, National Defence and the Canadian Coast Guard would continue to set their own operational priorities, requirements and acceptance criteria. The people who understand operational needs would keep deciding what is needed. The agency’s job would be to turn those requirements into results. The aim is not to choose between speed and accountability. It is to deliver both. This bill is about the link between national security and economic strength. The defence industrial strategy, launched in February, rests on a build, partner, buy framework to build in Canada where we have the capacity to develop it, to partner with trusted allies where co-operation strengthens our capabilities and supply chains, and to buy abroad when it is the most effective way to meet a requirement. Over the next decade, the strategy aims to create up to 125,000 new jobs, increase defence exports by 50%, raise the share of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms to 70% and grow annual defence revenues for small and medium-sized businesses by more than $5 billion. These are ambitious goals, and they are an opportunity. That opportunity must reach smaller companies in Nova Scotia, such as Theriault, not only the biggest firms in the biggest centres. Nova Scotia has extraordinary researchers and entrepreneurs, and we need to make it easier for innovations to move from prototype to production; give businesses the predictability to invest in equipment, facilities and workers; and help those businesses compete in allied markets around the world. A stronger defence industrial base is about more than jobs. It is about the capacity to act when our security demands it. In a crisis, countries compete for the same equipment, materials and components. A country that cannot maintain its equipment, replenish its supplies or raise production when demand surges is more vulnerable. Our crews at Greenwood that patrol the Atlantic and answer the search and rescue calls 24-7 depend on equipment that is maintained, supplied and sustained without interruption. That is why sovereign capability and secure supply chains matter. Every critical component we can produce here strengthens our resilience. Every critical system we can maintain here strengthens our independence. Every Canadian innovation we can develop and master strengthens our sovereignty. Building a stronger defence sector is not only about preparing for the challenges we face today. It is also about giving Canada the capacity, confidence and independence to meet the challenges of tomorrow. It is also about making sure that when those investments come, they are felt here at home in Nova Scotia and across Canada, from the hangars in Greenwood to the businesses across the Annapolis Valley, and of course to all of Nova Scotia. I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the people of Acadie—Annapolis.”