Government Operations Committee on May 26th, 2026

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

Can you reassure me by telling me whether, as part of this project, there will be real recurring consultations and integration?

As parliamentarians, when we're on the ground, there's nothing worse than being told, “That's not my job.” We're going to hold a meeting and do everything together. They go hand in hand. It's the same thing for workers. We're talking about employment insurance reform. Everything is connected.

Is it part of your role to establish a consortium to ensure that it's not just wishful thinking and that we're really going to buy Canadian?

[Dominic Laporte]

Since the launch of the “buy Canadian” policy, we have held a lot of consultations, particularly with steel producers. Mr. Lawrence‑Whyte, who is in charge of the Canadian procurement sector, met with thousands of suppliers. On its web page, our department collected feedback from suppliers on the “buy Canadian” policy to see what they want in it. I would say that all of that is part of our DNA as we develop the “buy Canadian” policy.

In addition, most government contracts have a component in which suppliers ask for information. We also have a chatbot to answer questions about the “buy Canadian” policy.

I would say that we approach this in a number of ways, including by interacting with manufacturers' associations or suppliers. We continually make sure that we collect that information and pass it on to our colleagues in other departments.

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

I'll come back to it in the next round.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Mr. Patzer, go ahead, please.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

You said that the buy Canadian threshold was lowered. What was it before?

[Dominic Laporte]

In the past, before December 16, there was no buy Canadian policy at all. When we started implementing the policy, the threshold was set at $25 million for all procurement within scope. That threshold will be lowered to $5 million.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Why is that?

[Dominic Laporte]

Why was it $25 million?

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Why did you lower it?

[Dominic Laporte]

We want to ensure that when we're triggering buy Canadian to encourage the Canadian supply chain, we do that across broader categories of contracts.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

It was said, though, that the threshold was lowered to 25% as a requirement.

[Dominic Laporte]

No. If I may, 25% of the total score evaluation will be allocated to Canadian content, when it comes to bid evaluation. The threshold of the application of the policy itself will be lowered from $25 million in contract value to $5 million, starting June 15.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Maybe there was some miscommunication from that side when they said that it was lowered to 25%. Minister Robertson did say that they were targeting 30%.

How did you guys come up with a certain percentage? Why is it 25%, not 30% or 75%?

[Dominic Laporte]

The goal was to strike the right balance.

My colleague Levent spoke about best value. We want to make sure price always remains a component, along with technical specifications and other criteria that may be assessed. Twenty-five per cent is significant in terms of driving Canadian value. It was the right level of required Canadian content—enough to make a difference while ensuring that there is still room for other evaluation criteria, such as technical criteria and price.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

I'm going to quote from Minister Robertson.

He said:

Across government, it will vary. You know, we're not being rigid about this, because there are many supply chains that we still need to improve across the country to make sure we can supply Canadian materials at affordable rates for the infrastructure and housing that we build.

Man, there are a lot of things I could ask questions about there—for example, “Across government, it will vary”. If the minister is saying that it's going to vary, does this mean some are excluded, some have a higher threshold and some have a lower threshold? What does he mean by “it will vary”?

[Dominic Laporte]

Thank you for the question.

I cannot speculate about what the minister meant in the context of Gs and Cs.

What I can assure you is that, for procurement, the same policy is applicable to all departments and Crown corporations. The threshold does not change.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Does that include the Department of National Defence and the Defence Investment Agency?

[Dominic Laporte]

Indeed, that would include Crown corporations.

Regarding Gs and Cs, my colleagues from TBS would be best fit to answer questions.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

The minister also mentioned, though, supplying “at affordable rates.”

Have you done a cost analysis to understand what impact this will have on the Canadian taxpayer as this policy gets unrolled?

[Dominic Laporte]

Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.

The goal of the buy Canadian policy is to strike the right balance between making sure we keep a level of competitiveness and.... We want suppliers to bid, and price is still a factor. It's the same thing with technical requirements.

In terms of analysis, it's too early, right now, to calculate total amounts and draw conclusions, but this is something we are closely monitoring—what the impact on price will be. At the same time, though, we are still getting a lot of competition in the procurements we're seeing.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

You talked about how you're going to prioritize and incentivize. Are you going to make the same incentives for every single procurement, or will there be some incentives that are more than others for various things, depending on what it is? Will this be equal across the board? How is that going to roll out?

[Dominic Laporte]

I'll turn to my colleague Levent on that question, if you'll allow me.

[Levent Ozmutlu]

The policy does allow for a certain degree of flexibility. We do have some standardized approaches that we would like to use, such as evaluating the Canadian content as 25% overall. However, there may be situations when we want to provide a higher incentive or a lower one, depending on the market conditions, given the breadth and scope of the goods and services that we purchase.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

What assurances do you have to make sure that the code of ethics is followed, that there is not preferential incentive given to well-connected bidders?

[Levent Ozmutlu]

The code of ethics applies regardless. That's something we take very seriously.