Evidence of meeting #9 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 procurement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Arianne Reza Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
First off, as the minister indicated, there will be a special operating agency. For the time being, in phase one, it will reside in PSPC. We will be drawing from PSPC, DND and ISED.
In terms of the two organizations running side by side, there is currently a floor of $100 million. We will be porting over the projects and the various elements as we go.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
This sounds very complicated to figure out just the process, let alone the procurement.
Will the ongoing review of the already chosen F-35 be conducted by the Defence Investment Agency bureaucracy, or will it continue where it is right now?
Conservative
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Okay. Will they be taking over the procurement of the F-35, though?
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
It will stay with the old department, then, so that's not one of their new projects.
Liberal
Stephen Fuhr Liberal Kelowna, BC
It's important to understand how that is structured right now. It's an MOU. It's different from all the other procurements we have. It's managed by DND and it always has been. Unless something changes—and I'm not aware of a change—DND will continue to manage that under the MOU.
Conservative
Jeff Kibble Conservative Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC
Okay, thank you very much.
I'm out of my time.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Secretary.
October 23rd, 2025 / 10:05 a.m.
Liberal
Liberal
Viviane LaPointe Liberal Sudbury, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Before I ask my question, Secretary, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to, and to clarify, the reporting structure question that was asked by my colleague.
Liberal
Stephen Fuhr Liberal Kelowna, BC
I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
The Defence Investment Agency has an elected official at the top. In this particular case, it happens to be me. It then has a senior public servant, and in this case, it will be Mr. Guzman, acting as a chief executive officer, equivalent to an ADM or a DM.
Underneath him will be a structure similar to what we see in other government departments—DGs, people working on procurement teams—and it will be set up in a way similar to what we see in other departments, except that it will be one place where the procurements come and where the procurements are dispatched.
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
If you would permit me, I could just add to that. It's a two-phase strategy. Machinery-of-government changes are always complex, so in the short term, I will remain the deputy accountable for that special operating agency and will support the minister as we move to that longer-term version in the coming months.
Liberal
Viviane LaPointe Liberal Sudbury, ON
Secretary, one of the Defence Investment Agency's core mandates is to bring together experts in operations, industry engagement and project management so that we can deliver procurement results that align with strategic objectives.
I will tell you that, as MP for Sudbury, in northern Ontario, we have institutions like NORCAT, Laurentian University, CEMI and MIRARCO that are already developing technologies like automation, remote operations, underground communications and autonomous systems, which overlap with defence priorities for situational awareness, mobility and resilience in changing environments.
How will this new agency ensure that these types of regional innovation ecosystems are systematically connected to defence procurement planning so that proven Canadian expertise from places like Sudbury can directly inform and supply the technologies being prioritized for Canada's future defence capabilities?
Liberal
Stephen Fuhr Liberal Kelowna, BC
I think one of the benefits of having this agency, and there are many, is that this is all we focus on. I personally am out all over the country. I'm in other countries figuring out where all this awesomeness exists—the capability and the capacity. I'm personally involved.
If you think about the old way of doing it, the three ministers who were in charge of it had massive departments that were in charge of many things and defence procurement was one of those things. This is all I do. My personal connection to the things that you talk about is obviously a lot better than it would be if there were a bunch of ministers involved because they're doing other things as well.
More specifically, the defence investment strategy that we should see in the coming months, should—I'm hoping; I've seen drafts and it's still a work in progress—start to tie all this together. It's a road map that explains how we're going to get from where we are to where we want to go. Between the strategy and this agency's ability to just be on the ball more because this is all it's focused on, I think the probability of getting it right is a lot higher than what we had before.
Liberal
Viviane LaPointe Liberal Sudbury, ON
Secretary, I'll tell you that there's a lot of awesomeness in Sudbury. I'll invite you to come and see for yourself.
Something I hear a lot is that small and medium-sized enterprises sometimes struggle to access large defence contracts.
How will your department be making sure that SMEs, including those in regions like northern Ontario, can participate as qualified subcontractors or component suppliers?
Deputy Minister, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I would love to.
What's interesting is that, obviously, Canada is made up of a lot of strong SMEs and we want to have access to them. Sometimes in the traditional model of bidding and accessing federal procurement, that might be daunting. We heard earlier about clear documentation.
We're doubling down on the efforts we have with our regional offices to have a “concierge service”, so that SMEs know what's coming. That is another key difference that the DIA will offer: better clarity, better alignment and better access, so people can forecast to see what the opportunities are. Additionally, we're going to offer them services for how to register, how to compete and how to find the opportunities. With the buy Canada sectoral piece that's been announced by the Prime Minister and our interest in these areas, we're hoping to fuse it together.
We know that many of our large Canadian defence suppliers want to have a supply chain made of SMEs, so making sure the opportunity, the access...and matching that skill set with a forecasted revenue of potential contracting opportunities is really key. Even in our contracts now, we talk about new skill sets and new models. We want to make sure we have that clarity in the supply chain, so we really have that Canadian opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
Thank you, Deputy Reza. I appreciate that.
Mr. Anderson, I think you're up for five minutes.
Conservative
Scott Anderson Conservative Vernon—Lake Country—Monashee, BC
Thank you.
Secretary, do you report to the minister of procurement?