Government Operations Committee on Feb. 10th, 2026

[Doug Guzman]

We are. We will have complete control of the groups of projects that we have custody of. The procurement activities on those projects will be executed by employees of the DIA, not by employees of PSPC. The intent of the design, as I'm sure you're aware, is to bring the expertise together in one place so we can arm the CAF at a faster, more effective rate.

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

Thank you.

Your department was created to “cut red tape”, but we're going to have some people in PSPC doing the same thing that people in DIA will be doing. What red tape, specifically, are you going to be cutting?

[Doug Guzman]

Well, there won't be people doing the same thing, because a project will be in either the DIA or PSPC, from a procurement perspective. Therefore, only one group of people will be working on it.

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

You still need to have two groups of people, one doing projects in one section and one doing...so you're doubling the bureaucracy. You're keeping some people to do, say, quality control in one department.

[Doug Guzman]

Well, I wouldn't say we're doubling it, because we haven't had a head count. We've split the complement in order to bring a responsive, rapid approach to procurement.

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

According to a separate Order Paper question—

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

What is being said is important. I commend the interpreters, but they can't speak twice as fast when members are talking over each other. I would therefore ask members to slow down and not all speak at the same time, so that the interpreters can do their job.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

We haven't had any commentary from them, but it's always a wise thing to remember. We are good so far.

I stopped your time, Mr. Kibble. Please go ahead.

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

Thank you. I will try to keep it a little slower.

According to a separate Order Paper question, as of October 20, the DIA is handling eight projects, including over-the-horizon radar, but it doesn't say that it's doing polar over-the-horizon radar, which is a separate system.

Who will be handling that? Will that be the DIA?

[Doug Guzman]

In time it will, yes.

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

Okay, that's fair enough.

So far, you have not disclosed your public investments. Given your position and the decision-making power associated with that, I feel Canadians deserve transparency. We're expecting a conflict of interest disclosure from you. Will you commit to disclosing that and perhaps submitting it to this committee?

[Doug Guzman]

Yes, of course. I'm fully compliant with the process. I had 60 days to make my disclosures to the ethics team. I did that in 12 days, and I've had feedback from them and we're wrapping up the process.

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

You have disclosed. Thank you.

[Doug Guzman]

I have until mid-March to complete the process.

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

I have one last quick question for Secretary Fuhr.

You appeared before the national defence committee on October 23 and testified that you report directly to the Prime Minister, yet according to documents circulated to this committee you were meant to be accountable to the Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement. Which would it be?

[Stephen Fuhr, Liberal, Kelowna, BC]

I certainly have a delegated authority. Politically, I'm accountable to the Prime Minister. I have a mandate letter from the Prime Minister.

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

Do you report to the Prime Minister, or do you report to the Minister of Government Transformation?

[Stephen Fuhr, Liberal, Kelowna, BC]

I report to the Prime Minister. I have delegated authority—which I am sure you're familiar with, having been in the military—from the minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada.

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

Okay. That sounds confusing, but fair enough.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

Mr. Gasparro, go ahead, please.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you.

Minister and Mr. Guzman, thanks for being here.

As a recovering investment banker, I can say that it's very nice to see you, Mr. Guzman, being brought on board.

Can you tell this committee a little bit about your background, please?

[Doug Guzman]

Sure.

I've worked in finance my entire career. More than half of that was as an investment banker, the last 10 years overseeing wealth and investment businesses. I worked at two places: Goldman Sachs, an American financial institution, and the Royal Bank of Canada.

As I started to explain in a prior question, a lot of what I've done in my past is useful in terms of the role I play here: managing large, complex organizations, managing complex transactions, sitting across the table from or beside governments and corporates, which I've done my entire career, and providing advice in relation to structuring transactions. Having just led businesses.... I sit on the executive committee of the Royal Bank, and that's a large, complex institution that needs to do things differently as it advances its business. Clearly, one of the mandates of this team is to do things differently in pursuit of arming the CAF in a more effective way.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

It's very impressive. I'm glad our government is taking a page out of C.D. Howe's playbook.

I will now pivot, and it's for either of you to answer.

I am relieved that our government is bringing our defence procurement in line with our allies. How will the Defence Investment Agency help support collaboration with our allies, such as France, the U.K., Germany, Australia, etc.?

Either of you is fine.

[Stephen Fuhr, Liberal, Kelowna, BC]

I'm sure there was always collaboration. I'm just back on the scene after being away for six years. We're speaking to them all the time.

My assessment of where we're at in terms of the DIA is that we're last to the party with setting up an agency that is purely focused on defence procurement. We just came back from South Korea, and they have an organization called DAPA. It's a little bit more sophisticated than what we're doing. Everyone has their own take on what it looks like.

One thing that is completely clear is that decentralized defence procurement is just too slow. It won't meet the moment. We've been decentralized for more than half a century. I think it was in the late 1960s when they let the toothpaste out of the tube and they just couldn't get it back in. I know why they couldn't get it back in—because it was really difficult to do.

We're a special operating agency right now, and so are the other two agencies, Build Canada Homes and the Major Projects Office. The reason is that these can be set up very quickly and they can lean back on the departments around them for resources. This agency will be different in eight to 12 months.

Around 80% of our stuff is delivering procurements. Whether these are exact numbers or not, a portion of our time, 20% of our time, is building out what this agency will look like when it stands by itself in the future. It will stand by itself in the future. What does that looks like? Do we need to amend the Defence Production Act? What legislative changes do we need to enable the agency to be on its own and independent? That's the ultimate goal.

The quickest way to start moving was the SOA. I can't remember if it's the Major Projects Office or Build Canada Homes, but they've already announced they're going to become a Crown corporation, as an example. I don't know what our future looks like, because there are a number of options. We're going to be discussing that over the coming months.

In the meantime, given how fast we have to move, how quickly we need to stimulate our economy, and how fast we need to arm and re-equip our Canadian Armed Forces, I'm solely focused on that. Even as an SOA, it's delivering results already. We've announced the Challenger replacement with the Global 6500. We have a strategic partnership with MDA and Telesat for a military-grade satcom for the Canadian Armed Forces. We've set the Canadian patrol submarine project on a path that's going to deliver submarines years earlier than otherwise would have happened.

We have a couple of new announcements coming. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but in the next couple of weeks we'll be announcing some really exciting things for the army.

Even as an SOA, we're delivering quickly. One of our mandates is that we need to also involve small and medium-sized enterprises, have more Canadian content, and work with allies who want to work with us. I don't want to take away all of your questions here, but this is an exciting opportunity, and I think we're off to a great start.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

That's great. That sounds impressive, Minister.

The Defence Investment Agency is going to facilitate our participation in SAFE, Security Action for Europe. Can you tell us what this means for Canadian suppliers and our defence industry more broadly?