National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee. lt is very much a pleasure to be here again before you, albeit in a different role as the deputy minister of National Defence. lt has been a little over seven weeks since I took up my new duties, and I will confess t

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. I look back very fondly on a number of interesting jobs that I've had in the public service, and certainly on my time at Transport Canada, where I led the department in doing a first kind of multimodal security strategy: after 9/11, where

National Defence committee  Thank you. First and foremost, I think, my time at CSE in collecting foreign intelligence—certainly the armed forces are a very important partner with CSE, particularly in Afghanistan and since in providing intelligence and working with the forces—gave me a very good overview an

National Defence committee  Thank you for the question. Our time in Infrastructure was fascinating and very challenging. The role of the department was how to get money through and into infrastructure projects quickly, because time was of the essence. We were starting in the recession after 2007, and the

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question. Coming into the job, I've also heard the same thing that was indicated in the report. I think that one of the really new features we're going to build into the procurement process within National Defence will be an independent third party

National Defence committee  My hope and my belief is that it will end up being faster. We'll spend a bit more time at the front end to make sure of the requirements and then will be able to demonstrate, and help the military demonstrate, that those requirements are sound, valid, and justified. That will pre

National Defence committee  Thank you. I'm humbled and flattered by the comments on my qualifications. I'll give you the same answer I gave when I was chief of CSE, which was that I felt CSE does have a good review mechanism in the commissioner in the office, and it's not the role of the intelligence agenc

National Defence committee  I'm at your call, Mr. Chair. I think the quick answer is that there's been a dramatic improvement I think in the exchange and coordination between the security intelligence defence agencies since 9/11. Certainly my experience is that. Can we do it better? Absolutely. I think th

National Defence committee  Well, coming into it, it's a very large, complex department. It's one of the largest in government. It's a very unique department in that you have both the civilian and the military personnel. Coordinating that and giving clear leadership direction at the top is going to be key.

National Defence committee  No, I think it is definitely one of the challenges in procurement. The longer the delays are in some of these major projects, the cost escalation we see can be quite significant, particularly in defence. So when you are budgeting and getting approval of a project at a certain amo

National Defence committee  I'm not familiar with the procurement cuts and levels, but it's certainly something I will be getting into and looking at as we go through our budget and our priority-setting for this coming year.

National Defence committee  Yes, I understood that. I think another one of our challenges will be the defence renewal process, which is how we streamline processes so we can reinvest those savings in other areas where we need resources. Certainly, procurement is going to be one of them. We'll be looking fo

National Defence committee  When I was at Infrastructure and Transport, I led that department's efficiency review to find savings there. It was a large department as well, and a regulatory department. We found areas where we could cut and then put money into more important areas, particularly on the regulat

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the transfers of staff abroad, there are two components. Part of the transfer is to Shared Services Canada, who provide the IT support for defence and military representatives abroad. The other component is a transfer to Global Affairs Canada. When we

National Defence committee  I'll comment quickly on the question of terms. The previous policy had been that after three years of terms the department would convert them into permanent employees. That was suspended as the department worked through its reductions. We're now reviewing that policy. We know the