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.