Evidence of meeting #26 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was process.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
I have less defence experience than I do in a lot of other areas relevant to the job.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
That's fair.
Do you have any defence experience or military experience?
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
I don't have military experience, no.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Have you worked with defence-related companies?
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
I have advised defence-related companies.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
You have advised defence-related companies. Okay. I am just looking to explore your expertise in that area. Thank you.
Were you consulted on the creation of the defence investment strategy, scheduled to be announced tomorrow?
February 10th, 2026 / 4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
I won't ask further questions on that. We will wait for that tomorrow.
According to an Order Paper question response I received on November 12, the Defence Investment Agency bureaucracy that has been created has 34 full-time employees.
Have there been any updates to this number since November 12?
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
We're at 85.
Mr. Fuhr mentioned a “full complement”. What is the full complement of the Defence Investment Agency?
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
The full complement will likely be in the 400 range, and that's some distance down the road.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
That's fair. Thank you for those numbers. I appreciate that.
It was mentioned that some of those employees have been pulled from Public Works. I believe the number is approximately 30.
Can you expand on that?
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
I don't have the exact split, but we formed the agency with experts from PSPC, ISED and DND. We intend to supplement that over time with external expertise, since the assignment is to innovate on the procurement side.
For the moment, I'm the only outside employee to date. The rest of it has been made from a transfer of existing government employees.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Okay. It's taking away from the full complement of those other departments, if you're cannibalizing from them.
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
I don't know what the other departments have done, in terms of head count, but there's been no incremental head count in creating the DIA, other than me.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
But there's been a loss in those other departments, as they've gone to your DIA.
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
Madame Harty, do you want to take that? You look as if you do.
Siobhan Harty Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Defence and Marine Procurement Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Yes.
What we did is transfer people plus their procurements, so there's been no loss. There's been a transfer of files.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Yes. However, there's been a loss of capacity in that department.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Defence and Marine Procurement Branch, Department of Public Works and Government Services
People went with their files, yes.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Those people are no longer there. Okay.
According to that same Order Paper question, your department has no quality control officers, cost analysis or risk management advisers. Are these specialist services still going to be provided by PSPC?
Chief Executive Officer, Defence Investment Agency
For the moment, many of those central functions are being provided by PSPC to the agency. The intention is to build them over time in the agency as it—
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Right now, those services will be provided by PSPC, and eventually you'll be taking over them.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
It will be transferred from there. It sounds a bit complicated, but I understand we're working up to 400 people.
What is your role going to be in the procurement process, if we also have PSPC doing it? Are you taking over completely from them?