With regard to the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) procurement and media reports that the solicitation to industry was optimized for a particular bidder: (a) is there a report from a Fairness Monitor, Auditor, or a comparable professional source, which indicates the CSC solicitation was conducted with integrity and, if so, what are the details of such reports, including (i) author, (ii) findings, (iii) date report was finalized, (iv) website location of report; (b) were any ministerial or departmental officials involved in the request for proposals approached by, or met with lobbying interests from BAE or from the Government of the United Kingdom prior to the request for proposals and, if so, what are the details including individuals involved and dates; (c) if the answer to (b) is affirmative, did any such engagement(s) influence the CSC requirements as they were solicited to industry and, if so, which ones; (d) does any of this influence referenced in (c) remain today; (e) were the planned number of ships to be procured, the quality of the product, or the projected budget altered in any manner as a result of undue influence by one of the bidders and, if so, how; (f) was the Fairness Monitor responsible for this procurement made aware of any the outside influence on the procurement process referred to in (a) through (e); and (g) what specific actions are being taken to reassure the defence industry and to dispel these suggestions of bias and bid-rigging in the media, so to ensure that there are no residual negative impacts on future major capital procurements for the Canadian Armed Forces?
In the House of Commons on May 9th, 2018. See this statement in context.