Vanguard Magazine

Slower Than Molasses in January A bout 18 months ago, many of us became aware of a De- fence Procurement Review (DPR) being spearheaded by an Assistant Deputy Minister in Public Services and Procure- ment Canada (PSPC). Observers cannot find a government statement on this ini- tiative on the internet, nor is it apparent that it has a target delivery date. A recent brief at Vanguard's C4ISR and Beyond conference spoke to this ongoing activity with terms like Continuous Capa- bility Sustainment (CCS, an outstanding idea first proposed I believe by a now re- tired ADM from Defence well before DPR was launched), the development of differ- ent 'pathways' which I think are meant to accommodate the attributes of differ- ent technologies and commodities (pre- sumably meaning different procurement strategies and perhaps in-service support strategies, no more one-size-fits-all), con- sideration guidelines which I believe are meant to render policy more flexible and relating to culture change, and musing about changing the lethargic approach to generating weapons platform require- ments. More recently, being led out of the Department of National Defence (DND), an industrial defence strategy is also in development. I cannot be more definitive because I have been unable to find docu- mentation of DPR or the other concepts mentioned. Furthermore, DPR consulta- tion has not occurred broadly; instead, I have heard rumours that select organiza- tions have been invited to offer ideas. One wonders why so little progress is apparent and with very little transparency overall. The requirement for change to military procurement relating to speed to delivery was included in the April 2024 defence policy statement, Our North Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada's Defence, under the section en- titled Speeding Acquisition and Advanc- ing Defence Procurement Reform. As well, the Standing Committee on National De- fence released an indictment of the mili- tary procurement system and recommen- dations for change in June 2024 in their document A Time for Change: Reforming Defence Procurement in Canada. Quite separately, there is no shortage of papers written by various observers out- side the government regarding ways to reform defence procurement. Aside from my own contributions from the practi- tioner's perspective, I would merely refer to two other excellent documents: the Canadian Global Affairs June 2020 paper entitled Toward Agile Procurement for National Defence: Matching the Pace of Technological Change, and the MacDon- ald Laurier Institute article in The Hub by Richard Shimooka in September 2023 entitled Canada's Military is Being Left Behind, the premise being "our system of procurement is fundamentally broken'. One would have thought that the list of items to tackle would have been abun- dantly clear, both at the strategy level and in the related tactical implementa- tion. And yet, the lack or urgency and transparency of the DPR now underway is quite mystifying – one could at least have hoped for a name change to 'De- fence Procurement Reform.' As I write this note, President Trump has been inaugurated and signed a flurry of Executive Orders. Canada is in the crosshairs of very large tariffs, and the President has opined that NATO nations need to move towards a defence spend- ing target of 5% of GDP. With Canada aiming to reach 2% many years in the fu- ture, the message is clear that the USA's polite (and occasional not-so-polite) en- couragement to beef up spending on the www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2025 29 T H E LA S T W O R D B Y I A N M A C K DEFENCE PROCUREMENT REVIEW: HMCS Ottawa. Photo: Royal Canadian Navy

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