Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House to speak to Bill C‑40. As many of my colleagues have done, I would like to take a moment, on behalf of the community of Orléans and myself, to acknowledge the tragedy at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, where four Canadian Armed Forces members lost their lives and dozens more were injured during a training exercise. To their families, loved ones and colleagues and to the entire community of Wainwright, I want to say that our thoughts are with them. I want them to know that the entire nation stands with them during this difficult time. I will now come back to the issue before us today. I think all members of the House can agree that our defence procurement system has become too cumbersome and that we need to find ways to operate faster and more efficiently. No matter which government has been in power over the past decades, this problem has been going on for a long time. Delays in military procurement are not a partisan issue. They are an issue of capacity, efficiency, funding and, ultimately, national security. We are at a critical moment. The federal government is moving forward with important reforms through the new defence industrial strategy and the new Defence Investment Agency. However, the world is not standing still. Threats are changing fast, new technologies are reshaping how wars are fought, and global instability is on the rise. While our allies are moving quickly to modernize their forces and strengthen their capabilities, Canada cannot afford to fall behind. We cannot meet today’s challenges with yesterday’s processes. Every delay means higher costs, lower delivery and a greater risk that our military will not have the tools it needs when it needs them most. As the former parliamentary secretary to the minister of national defence, I saw first-hand how our system can become a veritable labyrinth. What should take a few years sometimes takes 10 or 15 years, if not longer. While paperwork piles up on desks, costs soar, threats multiply and diversify, and our women and men in uniform continue to wait. The biggest cost is not always financial. It is felt by the women and men who serve in uniform. They need modern equipment to do their jobs and keep Canada safe, not equipment that arrives years after it was requested. The reality is that this issue is not tied to any one government or political party. We have seen these challenges for years. When a project takes years longer than expected, our military personnel are left to make do with aging equipment, rising costs and reduced capabilities. In some cases, the delays are so lengthy that the equipment may become outdated before it even reaches our service members. I had the privilege of serving on the Standing Committee on National Defence, where we studied defence procurement. We heard from officials from National Defence, Public Services and Procurement Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat. On paper, it often appeared that the system was moving forward. On the ground, however, the reality was somewhat different: Projects were delayed, costs were going up, and our military personnel was still waiting for the equipment they needed. Over the years, many individuals have weighed in on this issue. Calls to reform our procurement system are nothing new. As early as 2005, researchers at Queen’s University were studying the need to modernize defence administration. In 2013, the Jenkins report recommended better government coordination. Our defence procurement system was seen as overly complex and fragmented across multiple departments. In response to that report, the government launched a strategy aimed in part at streamlining the procurement process. In 2016, the Canadian Global Affairs Institute already observed that delays persisted and that reforms were not moving forward quickly enough. Regardless of which government was in office, the assessment remained largely unchanged: Efforts to streamline processes and improve coordination needed to continue. Our new federal government made important commitments to NATO. Canada has reached a benchmark of spending 2% of GDP on defence, and we are committed to investing even more in the years ahead. However, spending more money is not enough. That money must be turned into real capabilities, real equipment and real results for the women and men who serve our country. That is why Bill C-40, the strengthening Canada’s defence sector act, is so important. Through this legislation, we are proposing to establish the new Defence Investment Agency as a Crown corporation. This new structure would give it greater operational flexibility, would allow it to work more effectively with industry and would cut through some of the administrative barriers that too often have slowed down defence projects. The goal is simple: acquire capability faster, build stronger strategic partnership, support Canada’s defence industrial base and deliver the equipment our Canadian Armed Forces need when they need it. The equipment of tomorrow should be built by Canadian workers using Canadian steel and aluminum and driven by Canadian innovation. By giving the Defence Investment Agency more flexibility, we would be modernizing a system that must keep pace with a rapidly changing world. Our military does not need more bureaucracy. It needs equipment, it needs capabilities and it needs results. This is exactly what Bill C-40 is designed to deliver. This bill is about changing how we deliver critical capabilities to the Canadian Armed Forces. It is about making sure that essential projects do not sit in the system for years while operational needs grow more urgent by the day. In today’s world, the cost of inaction is too high. It is measured not only in dollars but in lost capabilities, reduced readiness and increased risks to our national security. The threats we face will not wait for our processes to catch up, and neither should we. All too often, we wait until a piece of equipment has come to the end of its useful life before we think about what comes next. Many experts recommend that instead, we always stay one step ahead. While one generation of equipment is in use, we should already be designing and developing the next. These recommendations also emphasize the need to speed up decision making, reduce administrative delays and streamline the approval process. The objective is clear: to enable Canada to achieve better results more quickly and respond to rapidly evolving international security threats. For residents of Orléans, national defence is not an abstract issue. We rub shoulders every day with soldiers, veterans and professionals who contribute directly to Canada’s security. They expect investments that are announced to produce real results, not years of administrative delays. Bill C-40, the strengthening Canada’s defence sector act, is specifically intended to make the system more agile, more efficient and better suited to today’s world so that our armed forces receive the capabilities they need when they need them. That said, more flexibility does not mean less transparency. The Defence Investment Agency will remain accountable to the government through a minister. It will be required to be accountable, comply with strict financial management rules, and undergo regular audits. Parliament will also continue to exercise its oversight role. With Bill C-40, the strengthening Canada’s defence sector act, the government is seeking to reduce delays and red tape while ensuring that taxpayer money is managed properly and that the agency remains accountable for its decisions. I hope to have my colleagues’ support for the next steps in the legislative process.
