Evidence of meeting #36 for National Defence in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was capabilities.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
Thank you, Mr. Savard‑Tremblay.
Mr. Kibble, it's over to you for five minutes, sir.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My questions are for the minister.
For those in uniform—everyone in the room today—thank you for your ongoing service.
On the DIS, my questions go to whether the architecture of that strategy has structural gaps—
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Thank you. I have hearing damage too. I understand.
I want to explore some potential structural gaps in the strategy so that we can look at potential improvements before our commitments harden.
I'm going to jump back to an earlier question. I've met with multiple SMEs on Vancouver Island and on the west coast. Could you explain better how SMEs can get trusted partnership status? I think page 14 of the DIS uses the term “formal strategic partnerships” so that they don't have to defer to primes, which has the potential of adding significant cost and time.
Conservative
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Then I will read you what she will tell you in the next hour. How's that?
Conservative
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Look, I will not read this, but here's what I'll tell you.
We're working our way through the details now to make sure that SME participation is robust. We launched this strategy 10 weeks ago—not 10 months ago. We're making sure that we are cultivating and bringing together a lot of different players in Canada's private sector.
I've met with hundreds of companies. Our DIS team is meeting with and hearing from thousands of companies. We are trying to achieve the balance between obviously working with primes and working with SMEs themselves. Many companies come forward and have an idea that is not relevant or not related to the actual needs of the Canadian Armed Forces. We're going to have to let them down directly—
Conservative
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
That's the whole idea: to get the path.
I just want to share with you one other thing—
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
My time is limited, Minister.
If I could move on, you mentioned DIS targets of 70% of defence contracts to domestic firms. You said that was not measured by dollars but by materiel. Can you explain how we measure 70% of defence contracts not by dollars? I'm just quoting you—not by dollar value, but by materiel.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
If we're buying a particular piece of equipment.... Okay, let's be precise. We just purchased 70,000 rifles from Colt Canada. We're looking to make sure that the procurement of that is 70,000 in terms of Canadian manufacturing.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
That's one contract.
Do you measure it by the dollar value? The Prime Minister said that 75¢ of every capital defence dollar currently flows to the United States. We're trying to achieve 70%—
Liberal
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
How are we measuring it if we're not measuring it by dollars, but—to quote you earlier—by materiel value?
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
What we're trying to do is make sure that overall there is a 70% participation rate by Canadian companies in supplying all the goods and services to the Canadian Armed Forces.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
A Canadian company could have a $1-million contract. Would that weigh equally with a foreign country that would have, say, a submarine contract, and you could say, well, it's fifty-fifty? The dollars don't match up, and I don't see us on a target for reducing that 75¢.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Would you accept that the DIS and its 10 capabilities are anchored in the conventional kinetic domain and things we've historically called the military domain? It doesn't appear that they're focused—if you would agree with me—on the prekinetic threats that NSICOP has documented across the civil-military boundary. I'm sure you're well aware of those.