Government Operations Committee on Feb. 10th, 2026

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

It's just something that Ms. Sudds said at the beginning. She said that I was talking about Canada Post, when I was actually only talking about red tape reduction.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

Minister, keeping in mind that comment, I don't know if you want to change anything in your response. Maybe you could do it in writing.

We're going to suspend in a moment, but before we do, I have a couple of quick questions, if you don't mind.

Will PSPC post any justifications regarding the use of sandbox decisions and make them public?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

As I understand it, the process outlined in the bill includes a mechanism for reporting to Treasury Board, among others.

I'm not sure I understand your question exactly, but as I understand it, yes, there is a reporting requirement—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

It's enacting the power, making use of the power given to cabinet members to make these decisions under Bill C-15.

Will those justifications in the public interest be made public?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Perfect, thanks.

Would you consider or would you recommend a sunset clause for these provisions, so that we can see, perhaps in a year, how they're working out, rather than just giving permanent powers to cabinet?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

That is one suggestion. I'm not prepared to commit on that on behalf of the government at this time, but I've heard your suggestion, Mr. McCauley.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

You talked about the need to bypass some of the regulatory framework we have, like enacting the power and making use of the powers from Bill C-15. Why not just fix the regulatory framework? Why do we need these powers to bypass the regulatory framework, instead of just fixing the framework?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

The regulatory framework may not fit a specific use, a specific industry, or a specific innovation. As an experienced parliamentarian, you know that sometimes, changes—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Why not fix the regulatory framework, if it doesn't fit?

We've heard consultants, we've heard business, we've heard analysts, we've heard everyone talk about the issues around our regulatory system in Canada, how nothing can get built with all the red tape. Why aren't we just fixing that, as well? I understand that sometimes there is a need to bypass, but why aren't we tackling that?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

You're quite right. We need to reduce red tape overall and have a regulatory framework that protects Canadians while promoting innovation. I think we can do both.

That doesn't diminish the need for this kind of regulatory sandbox or lessen its importance. It's similar to what other countries have done to promote innovation, with some moving much more quickly than regulatory change would allow.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

What metrics are going to be used when we're talking about buy Canadian and the selection of buy Canadian? What metrics are going to be used to determine if we're succeeding?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

First, thank you for reminding us of that announcement.

For us, it's clear that the way we gauge the success of our “buy Canadian” policy will be by seeing an increase in Canadian content and in the number of Canadian companies winning contracts.

The problem is that there is not necessarily a high level of visibility at this time with regard to Canadian content, meaning that we may have a Canadian supplier without the content being Canadian. That is what we are changing with the “buy Canadian” policy. Not only must the supplier have an address in the country, but we also need to see that the content is Canadian.

The cold, hard benefits will be much more visible and will now be taken into consideration at contract award. That is the main purpose of the “buy Canadian” policy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

How is that going to be presented, perhaps to this committee or to the public?

The reason I ask is that we have been looking at the issue around indigenous procurement for years. We'd send Order Paper questions to PSPC, which would respond that they track it on an Excel spreadsheet and that they really don't have that information.

How are we going to see if we're actually succeeding in this program, as opposed to it just being more talking points?

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

I know that Deputy Minister Arianne Reza has been giving a lot of thought to these issues for a long time.

One of the problems we faced was that Canadian content was not always visible in past procurement. That will change going forward. We will have that visibility because it has been part of the criteria for awarding procurement contracts since 16 December.

Ms. Reza, would you like to add anything?

[Arianne Reza, Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services]

I would just add that we are looking at it through many different lenses, including the KPIs and including what we're going to do to be able to have compliance and measurement around it. As the minister indicated, it's about the Canadian supply chain, about what is manufactured here and what professional services are done here. It's really about being able to look and unpack the supply chain and put some key performance indicators and measures against it. We're ramping up on the policy and trying to build the framework concurrently.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'll look forward to some success with that.

I've been on this committee for years. I recall one study where a very famous comment came from your department, which was about how Canadian IT companies could not get any government contracts. The answer was, no one ever gets fired in the government for hiring IBM, and thus we don't give it to Canadian businesses.

I look forward to actually seeing a change and some success in that area.

Anyway, thank you again for being with us.

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Ms. Reza and Mr. Ieraci, it's wonderful to have you with us.

We're going to suspend for five minutes. We'll try to fix Mr. Lauzon and then we'll welcome our new guests.

We're suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you, everyone, for your patience.

Welcome to the first part of our study on the creation and planning of the Defence Investment Agency, pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(c).

We welcome Mr. Fuhr and Mr. Guzman.

I hope you're doing well. Thank you for joining us today.

We understand you have an opening statement for five minutes, sir. Please, go ahead.

[Stephen Fuhr, Liberal, Secretary of State (Defence Procurement)]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you for inviting me here today.

I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered today on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.

I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss the Defence Investment Agency. As Secretary of State for Defence Procurement, my primary responsibility is to make sure that the government provides the Canadian Armed Forces with the tools and equipment they need to defend Canada and Canadians.

For too long, defence procurement in Canada has been too slow, overly complicated and fragmented across several departments. To address these shortcomings, the government is changing its approach. This work builds directly on the recommendations of the national defence committee's 2024 report entitled “A Time for Change: Reforming Defence Procurement in Canada”.

We created the Defence Investment Agency to bring coherence, speed and accountability to the system. The DIA is making procurements faster and more efficient. We are prioritizing Canadian industry so that, whenever possible, we are buying here at home and strengthening Canada's industrial capacity. When urgent or operational needs require us to look abroad, we will work with trusted partners to secure the intellectual property needed for Canadian companies and workers to sustain that equipment here at home.

Canada has world-class capability and capacity in aerospace, shipbuilding, land systems, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. Leveraging Canadian expertise to build out our military will grow our economy while delivering capabilities to our armed forces in a tangibly quicker way.

Presently, the government is working toward meeting our NATO 2% of GDP defence spending this fiscal year, which is five years ahead of schedule. We're also exploring opportunities to pull future procurements forward to ensure that we're on a path to meeting NATO's 5% defence investment pledge by 2035.

The Defence Investment Agency is ramping up its operations and is already focused on a number of high-priority procurements. Several major procurements have already been transferred to the agency, and more will follow as the organization expands. With a number of these projects, we have taken important steps to streamline their delivery and to create opportunities for Canadian industry.

With the enhanced satellite communications project, polar, we announced a strategic partnership between Telesat and MDA Space—two Canadian companies with expertise in delivering satellite communications and space-based infrastructure—to deliver this project faster and to stimulate our economy in the process.

Meanwhile, we streamlined the award of the contract to purchase six Global 6500s from Bombardier to replace our aging Challenger fleet, and we set the Canadian patrol submarine project on a path to deliver years earlier than otherwise anticipated.

Within the agency, CEO Doug Guzman is now responsible for building the agency and leading the DIA. His experience in capital allocation, project execution and major financial operations is essential as we accelerate procurement and grow our defence industrial base.

As a first step, we have established the DIA as a special operating agency within Public Services and Procurement Canada to benefit from the department's expertise and long-standing relationship with industry. This transitional structure is allowing us to stand up the agency quickly while bringing together the full complement of the personnel and capabilities from Public Services and Procurement, National Defence, the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian Coast Guard, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. The integrated experts report to the agency's CEO, who works with the deputy minister of PSPC. Together, they support me as the secretary of state responsible for this new organization.

To meet the moment, we are making defence procurement faster and more efficient so that our armed forces and Coast Guard get what they need when they need it, while helping drive innovation and economic growth for Canada's new reality.

I am happy to take any questions you may have for me today.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much.

We'll start with Mr. Kibble.

Mr. Kibble, welcome to OGGO. I understand you're joining us from the defence committee today.

The floor is yours for six minutes.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Secretary, for the opening statement.

My first question is for Mr. Guzman.

Let's just cut to the chase. What defence experience do you have?

[Doug Guzman, Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency]

Thank you.

You would have to ask others why I was picked for the job. I have relevant experience in a number of fields. I've led large, complex organizations. I've advised corporations on—

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

I have seen your résumé and acumen.

My question is specific to defence.