Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney makes an announcement at Bombardier, in Dorval, Que., on April 14.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Liberal Leader Mark Carney is promising to create a defence purchasing agency to speed up military equipment procurement and prioritize buying Canadian gear and materials whenever possible.
His promise echoes a 2019 Liberal campaign pledge to create a separate procurement agency, which at the time the party said would be called Defence Procurement Canada. Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government never set up such an agency after the 2019 election.
Canada’s system for buying military goods is a perennial target for criticism – in particular for the amount of time it takes to acquire equipment. David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, a think tank, says Ottawa’s procurement process is “at times sclerotic.”
Speaking at a campaign stop Monday, Mr. Carney pledged to create a Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science, or BOREALIS, to deliver what he called made-in-Canada solutions for the Canadian Armed Forces and the Communications Security Establishment, the country’s signals interception and cyberprotection agency.
Canada already has Defence Research and Development Canada, a research arm of the Department of National Defence. Isabella Orozco-Madison, a spokeswoman for the Liberal campaign, said BOREALIS would be separate.
The Liberal Leader, who was visiting a Bombardier facility in Dorval, Que., framed his promise as a response to threats to Canada’s sovereignty from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has imposed tariffs on many Canadian goods and has repeatedly talked of making the country the 51st U.S. state.
“We will protect our sovereignty in an increasingly dangerous and divided world by rebuilding, reinvesting and rearming our military,” Mr. Carney said in a statement.
“In the process, we will support made-in-Canada defence procurement, while also helping our industries and businesses reach new markets around the world.”
He said the new procurement agency would prioritize the use of made-in-Canada equipment and raw materials such as steel, aluminum and critical minerals.
The Liberal Leader said that, under this commitment, Ottawa would centralize decision-making on procurement and be granted more discretion to waive procurement rules when necessary.
Mr. Carney said if his party forms government after the election, it would provide the agency “with greater powers and flexibility, so that there are exceptions, for example, with respect to the level of competition that’s required in terms of defence contracting, speed with which contracts can be struck,” and prioritization for “Canadian suppliers and the Canadian supply chain that’s going to deliver it.”
The CGAI’s Mr. Perry said there is internal resistance to the idea of spinning off procurement responsibility to a separate agency. “The bureaucracy has never been enthusiastic about this,” he said.
Other measures Mr. Carney promised include advancing Canada’s involvement in the ReArm Europe Plan in support of transatlantic security, “and prioritizing investment here in Canada.”
The Liberal Leader has promised to increase defence spending to 2 per cent of gross domestic product by 2030, two years faster than Mr. Trudeau had pledged.
Philippe Lagassé, a Carleton University associate professor whose research includes defence policy and procurement, said the existing system of buying military gear is extremely risk-averse.
“And as a result of that, it creates a generalized, slow process where everybody wants to get everything absolutely right. And there’s a very low tolerance for risk, of taking chances, of moving things forward quickly,” he said. “It takes a lot of effort to expedite things and to accept risk, which ironically enough, creates different kinds of risks.”
Richard Shimooka, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute think tank, said about six different parts of government have a role in buying military gear including the Department of National Defence; the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; Treasury Board; the Department of Justice; the Canadian Armed Forces; and Public Services and Procurement Canada, which runs the process. He said it would be a mistake if a separate defence procurement agency simply “recreates Public Services and Procurement Canada.”
Prior to the election, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged to build a military base in Canada’s Arctic, buy two polar icebreakers for the Royal Canadian Navy and double the size of the Canadian Rangers patrol group responsible for the upper reaches of the North. During the campaign, he’s also promised to boost support for veterans by cutting bureaucracy and putting caps on wait times for the approval of disability applications.
Conservative candidate James Bezan, who has served as the party’s defence critic for years, criticized Mr. Carney’s pledge as a “hollow promise that seeks to once again fix all of the problems caused by the Liberals’ bureaucracy and red tape.”
Former Research In Motion Ltd. co-CEO Jim Balsillie said if Ottawa wants to prioritize Canadian technology, Mr. Carney’s government should not have agreed in March to buy Australian over-the-horizon radar technology when a homegrown alternative, D-TA Systems of Ottawa, exists.
“It’s rich to make this announcement right after giving a $6-billion contract to foreign military vendors rather than a thriving Ottawa-based company,” Mr. Balsillie said. “Canadian industry has heard these promises before and it always unfolds like Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football.”