National Defence Committee on Oct. 21st, 2025

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question, through you, is for the minister.

Bill C-12 on the Oceans Act implies that the Coast Guard will report under the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. In fact, yesterday in the House of Commons, I asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety this question. He stated that the Coast Guard will fall under the DFO. He then stated that the Coast Guard will fall under two departments.

Minister, could you please clarify? Will the Coast Guard continue to fall under the Department of National Defence, as indicated in the recently signed OIC?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

The Canadian Coast Guard will fall under the Department of National Defence.

Amendments are being made in Bill C-12, which is the new Bill C-2, to amend the Oceans Act to give the Coast Guard the authority to provide information that will be used for security purposes.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Is it fair to say that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety was confused on the issue?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I'm not sure what he said to you, but—

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

I told you what he said. That's fair enough. It does seem like a bit of a—

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Excuse me. I'll take a look at that.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Yes, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

Bill C-12 tasks the Coast Guard with security patrol surveillance and intelligence gathering. Presently, they are not equipped to do that.

What are the cost estimates and time estimates to equip and train the Coast Guard to support its added tasks?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I can't give you the exact timeline right now. I think the commissioner might be better placed afterwards because you might want to hear from—

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Perhaps as the ministry—

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I will defer to the expert, sir.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

I'll ask those questions later, if that's all right.

The Prime Minister stated that Canada will not split the submarine contract.

Will you commit to the same for the F-35 aircraft program for the same reasons as not splitting the submarine contract?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I think once the review is completed we'll be in a much better position to address that question of mixed or non-mixed fleets.

Thank you for asking.

[Jeff Kibble, Conservative, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

We'll look forward to that information.

Mr. Anderson.

[Scott Anderson, Conservative, Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee, BC]

Thank you.

Sir, we've heard testimony here that the world is a much more dangerous place and it has become more dangerous over the past 10 years. We are lacking recruitment, we're lacking soldiers' equipment and we're lacking housing for those soldiers, once we get them. We're essentially starting from ground zero.

Can you tell us why the plan is so back-end loaded?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I don't think we are starting from ground zero, but we're certainly catching up very quickly. We're making decisions that are expediting things.

With the new procurement agency that's being stood up by mid-November, you're going to see a speed of acquisition the likes of which this country has never seen because we've never had this kind of structure.

[Scott Anderson, Conservative, Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee, BC]

With respect, I'm asking why we are putting most of the money at the back end of this procurement when we're in a fairly dangerous position right now. We're underequipped and undeployable, frankly, in the north.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

What do you mean by the back end? Help me understand.

[Scott Anderson, Conservative, Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee, BC]

I mean, long after your government is no longer in power, the rest of this money is being spent. Very little is being spent at the front end when we're in a bit of a crisis situation right now.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

This fiscal year, $63 billion is being spent, including an additional $9.3 billion that was announced in June. That's going to have a profound effect. For example, $2 billion or more is going into the pay and other package increases for folks. That's having a great bearing on keeping people and bringing them into the system. I think that's one of the reasons why recruitment is up.

There is a lot of very immediate investment going on right now. There are contracts being let. There are acquisitions under way.

I don't know that it's all back-ended.

[Scott Anderson, Conservative, Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee, BC]

On that subject, then, do we have a formal procurement strategy? Do we have something written down—a plan to procure the things we need?

Do we have a strategic plan, first of all?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

We have a defence investment agency being stood up, the details of which will be made public very shortly. That's going to have a great bearing on any acquisition over $100 million.

Here is something else we've done: We've actually given more local authority and more purchasing power to folks who are on our bases—for example, our commanders and our L1s.

[Scott Anderson, Conservative, Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee, BC]

I'm almost out of time. I have just one more question here.

Do we have a comprehensive C4ISR or a communications strategy to go forward? Do we have a plan to move forward?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Forgive me. It's not a term I am familiar with.

[Scott Anderson, Conservative, Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee, BC]

It's a military acronym. It's the command, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It's essentially a plan that says what we are going to buy and when we are going to buy it.

Do we have one?

[Gen. Jennie Carignan]

It's what we call C4ISR. This is, in fact, common in control suites and digital systems that allow us to combine a massive amount of data and then be able to read from sensors and analyze what we are seeing to make decisions.