Government Operations Committee on June 9th, 2026

[James Yurichuk]

Yes.

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

That's great, so you'll be able to answer me in French.

I want to come back to the fact that there are two ideologies. Given that you know a bit about what is happening in Quebec City, there is an ideology of industrial sovereignty, of rolling out industrial clusters. What we're experiencing, particularly outside Quebec, is self-regulation. When we talk about this issue, can we call on your expertise? Does it make sense?

[James Yurichuk]

Having been in this industry for just over 10 years, I think Quebec has been a leading province in terms of mobilizing the industry and being forward and helping projects to get online. A lot of that is the collaboration. I go to industry events within Quebec. I see that brotherhood and sisterhood among Quebec companies. I think it's one for other provinces to look at and emulate, because with that they seem to be winning projects. When I look at Quebec in terms of a province, I see that there are a lot more mandates on made in Quebec and made in Canada. That's something I'm certainly looking at as an Ontarian.

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

It's a fact that, if the market is self-regulating, this policy right now….

This is going to be my question for Mr. Straisfeld: Is it really an issue for you to be dependent on the market? In recent decades, we haven't managed to find a niche or develop sectors. Do you agree with me?

[Andy Straisfeld]

In a way, I agree with the policy that's now in front of us.

I'm in military procurement. I think that when we say buy Canadian, it's for every province: I want maple syrup from Quebec, honey from Ontario and fish from British Columbia or Nova Scotia.

If we build this buy Canadian policy, we guarantee that, when the state of the world changes, we will maintain the principle of having relationships we can rely on.

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

Since I still have a bit of time left, in terms of growing or maintaining your roll-out, what would help a company like yours the most? Is it ensuring public contracts, more capital, predictability or perhaps even a really well-developed industrial strategy? What do you think?

[James Yurichuk]

In our particular case—each one is unique—we just want a chance to compete within Canada, and we want Canadian support behind the industry. I look at Norway, South Korea and France. These are similar-sized countries that have stood up big primes. Those primes have been grown and developed by their home countries over the years. Those are the companies that became primes in Canada. We want the support to become a prime within Canada and to be able to sell as primes over there.

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

Excellent. From what I hear, they are recognized and valued, but also supported. We're talking about Quebec, but there isn't just public money and grant money, there is a support model. To keep you going, should that be incorporated into the buy Canadian policy?

[James Yurichuk]

This would certainly help us in our effort to fill the capability gap here, and to export.

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

I have 10 seconds left, Mr. Straisfeld. What do you think?

[Andy Straisfeld]

In a way, I agree with you.

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

That's as simple as it gets.

Mr. Chair, the interpretation was challenging in that round. You're doing a good job, but it's hard to focus, even for our witnesses, I'm sure. I don't know what's going on, but I want to emphasize that the second round was challenging.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'll have the clerk follow up on that while we go to our next round.

Mrs. Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much to both witnesses for joining us today.

Mr. Yurichuk, your SME is navigating procurement. You mentioned in a previous answer that some proposals cost $400,000 or more to get to the point where they can be submitted. No part of buy Canadian is removing or delayering the previous rules that drive up the upfront costs of procurement.

I'm wondering if you could elaborate on what barriers exist before a bid is even submitted by SMEs.

[James Yurichuk]

I can speak to some of the procurements I've been seeing come up at PSPC recently.

There are things that could be easily done here. I don't think we've done our full due diligence on what's available in the industry within Canada. The example I'll use is the traditional Mountie hat. If you can believe it, we're not making those in Canada right now. When we asked PSPC, they said, “Oh, we're not confident in the capability of Canada to make this Mountie hat.” This is an iconic hat. This is something we absolutely have to make here.

When I look at defence textile and apparel systems, I often see some groups continually buying in the U.S. They put in the Berry amendment around 1943, which provides that all military textiles be made in the U.S. We're competing against a U.S. market that has grown over the last 80 years, along with an Asian supply chain and PSPC not fully understanding the capabilities of the industry. This makes it extremely difficult to compete. There absolutely is the capability to make these and other niche products in Canada. I desire to bring that back.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Thank you for that.

I know that the government has been promising an SME procurement program for buy Canadian. We heard here today that they are going to be creating an office for SME procurement. It should come as no surprise to any of us that the confidence this might build into a process is somewhat lacking, given that this government is really great at building bureaucracies and not really great on delivering.

I want to ask you a question about Canadian content. As far as Canadian content goes, you've just highlighted that the Government of Canada doesn't have any confidence in companies here to be able to manufacture a quality hat for the RCMP. Can you comment on how critical pre-existing supply chains are to SMEs?

[James Yurichuk]

I think the strength of our company in particular is the ability to work on a coast-to-coast supply chain. One thing we've stood up as a company is the Canadian Mobilization Apparel and Gear Network. We now have 70 SMEs that are all Canadian-based and Canadian-owned, from coast to coast to coast, and able to make some of these products.

Along with some of the activity that you're doing, we're also starting to have to make a naughty list. We're making a naughty list of stuff that should be procured here in Canada but is being outsourced right now. This is not a list that you want to make right now, because it is stuff such as the Mountie hat, which should be made here in Canada, that's going to make that list.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Are SMEs worried about supply chain disruptions that might occur given the buy Canadian policy we have that the government has put in place?

[James Yurichuk]

I think the SMEs are hopeful that it helps to advance their position. Most of the SMEs here are operating as Canadians, so there's hope in that regard. It's the pen to paper that's going to help to get you to the next gear. That's why every defence event is sold out. That's why there's so much excitement right now.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

You're hopeful that this policy will challenge the status quo and that there will be more opportunity for Canadian businesses to do work with the Government of Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Please give a yes-or-no answer.

[James Yurichuk]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We are out of time. I'm sorry.

Next is Ms. Rochefort.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Thank you.

I enjoyed hearing you talk about the excitement that's been created by the government's industrial defence strategy. That's very good to hear. It's government in action.

I also very much appreciated and enjoyed both presentations. You spoke about Canada's entrepreneurial spirit being alive and well. That's really wonderful.

I also thought that it was very enjoyable to see the breadth of products that could potentially be available throughout Canada under the defence industrial strategy. We think of ammunition and certain elements, but you're obviously doing different products that we may not think of or that aren't as common in the field of defence.

Thanks to both of you for your presentations.

I have the same question for both of you. It's building a bit on the question of my colleague, Madam Sudds. This is an opportunity to move forward on a small business procurement program, but your viewpoint is very important. It's in partnership with industry that we're moving forward and very much on your thoughts. We've touched on your thoughts, but could you summarize what you would like to see in the upcoming small business procurement program to make it easier for SMEs to do business with the federal government?

The question is for both of you, Mr. Yurichuk and Mr. Straisfeld. Whoever would like to go first, could you summarize in bullet form—one, two, three, four, five, six—what would be the essential key points?

[James Yurichuk]

Mr. Straisfeld, if you like, you can begin.