Procurement problems undermining Liberals’ defence policy, analyst says
OTTAWA — Long-standing problems with Canada’s military procurement system are threatening to undermine the Trudeau government’s vaunted defence policy, warns a new report.
The study, published by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute this week, says the government is on track to spend billions less on new equipment this year than was promised in the Liberals’ policy.
The main reason, says the report’s author, defence analyst David Perry, isn’t that the money isn’t available; bottle necks in the procurement system have slowed progress on a variety of projects, meaning the money can’t be spent.
That has been a recurring theme in military procurement for the past five years, as the actual amount of money spent on new equipment has steadily declined because of delays and other snarls in the system.