Thank you for the invitation to speak to you all today on the most important of topics, Canada's air defence procurement projects.
The 2016 report of the Standing Committee on National Defence on Canada’s air readiness noted that “the international security environment is both unpredictable and in constant evolution”. I think the events of the past eight months, to say nothing of the last five weeks, have reiterated just how true this statement is. All of this has implications for Canada’s air defence and the wider defence policy.
Rapid changes among friend and foe alike, like Russia's invasion of Ukraine, call for a clear-eyed assessment of Canada's role in the world and what investments we collectively need to make to effectively defend our sovereignty at home and uphold our alliances on the continent and overseas. This duty falls on the shoulders of the government, parliamentarians and citizens alike.
However, the approach adopted in equipping the Canadian Armed Forces over the last several decades is no longer satisfactory. To be sure, in the air realm, both current and past governments have replenished fleets of aircraft, like the C-130J Hercules, or acquired new capabilities, like the C-17 strategic lift.
Progress has also come in supplying new fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft, like the C-295s, and modernizing the CP-140 Aurora patrol planes. These are both welcome initiatives, as is the plan to acquire new strategic tanker capability by the end of the decade.
However, with these few exceptions, the procurement process for key air defence projects remains frustratingly hindered by both the politicization of projects and a cumbersome status quo process split between central agencies and defence procurement bureaucracy. By DND’s own admission, it typically takes 15 years on average to deliver new equipment to the CAF, but this is an average; it can often take longer.
The fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft I noted earlier, for example, began as a project in 2002. The last aircraft is not expected into service until 2024, 22 years later. I need not remind you about the CF-18 replacement.
Finally, there is NORAD modernization, a high-priority item between both Canada and the U.S. that has been at the heart of our shared continental defence alliance since 1958. As is so often the case, the question remains as to what costs we are prepared to pay and what capabilities we are prepared to invest in. I sincerely hope the discussions, like the one being undertaken by this committee, will help shed light on these questions and inform the government and Canadians as a whole on the next steps.
I look forward to your questions.