An internal federal government audit delivered late last year warned the work of buying and upgrading military technology was still being plagued by bureaucratic hurdles.
The report was released as the federal government forged ahead with reforms meant to speed up purchases of military equipment.
The review began in the waning days of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government and was delivered in late 2025.
The audit said it found “persistent challenges” in the procurement system, even though it is “evolving rapidly” under Prime Minster Mark Carney’s government.
“Despite significant progress, the evaluation identified persistent challenges, such as disconnected databases, heavy oversight and excessive project documentation requirements,” the audit said.
The audit warned that even uncomplicated purchases tended to take on average a decade to complete. More complex projects to add new capabilities took anywhere from one to three decades to close out, it said.
Asked for comment about the audit, Conservative defence critic James Bezan said it’s “outrageous that our women and men in uniform need to wait between nine and 27 years to get the equipment they need to defend Canada.”
The audit said it examined 84 projects it could easily track — which is not necessarily a representative sample due to the complexity of the government’s paper trails.
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A spokesperson for Stephen Fuhr, secretary of state for defence procurement, said the audit “helped inform” some of the policies being advanced through the new Defence Investment Agency.
Spokesperson Laurent Blanchard said this agency has “already accelerated several procurements to equip the Canadian Armed Forces with the tools it needs to defend our sovereignty.”
The agency is a new government office, created last fall, to streamline decision making and improve military procurement. It has already been at the centre of a number of high-profile purchases, such as the acquisition of a half-dozen Bombardier Global 6500 jets.
Blanchard credited the agency with speeding up the purchase of new modular assault rifles for the army by about two years.
Carney’s government has been moving to accelerate defence purchases to meet steep annual spending commitments to the NATO alliance, and to advance large priority purchases down the field.
Defence Minister David McGuinty said at an event on Wednesday the government is moving major purchases along as fast as it can, and is slashing years off the process of buying a multi-billion dollar fleet of submarines for the Navy.
The government has settled on that submarine project as a showcase for how intends to speed some procurements along.
The Liberal government’s structural reforms are also far from complete. It’s expected to table legislation this spring to beef up the new defence investment agency, which is meant to streamline procurement decisions and speed up purchasing.
That office is currently embedded within an existing department but is expected to legally become a stand-alone, independent office.
Bezan dismissed it as an “unnecessary” layer of new bureaucracy that won’t address core problems.
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The audit cautioned that some policies — designed specifically for emergency acquisitions during crises — are “constrained by limited scope, heavy governance and lack of cross-departmental coherence.”
It warned that even projects flagged as urgent — or as an “unforecasted operational” requirements aimed at addressing “critical” short-term gaps in military capabilities — aren’t guaranteed to move quickly and still have to “navigate the full bureaucratic maze.”
Flagging purchases as urgent can sometimes slash procurement timelines from a decade or more down to three years or so. But the audit warned it does “not deliver on its mandate” and that some purchases have not “progressed as intended, which raises questions about the suitability of the current framework.”
The audit painted a picture of understaffed project offices overwhelmed by paperwork and the large number of stakeholders with which they have to consult.
“Success is relative and is not satisfactory according to program staff,” it said. “The system is not designed for speed.”
The report said five projects it examined related to the mission in Latvia that were flagged as urgent were expected to take between 30 to 40 months to reach initial operating capability. It did not say what the projects are.
The audit examined two specific policies in detail. The first is “agile procurement” for IT projects and the second is called “continuous capability sustainment” — which was outlined in the last defence policy update and is meant to upgrade equipment as it goes through its regular maintenance cycles.
The military typically waits until a platform or technology is about halfway through its life expectancy before upgrading its systems. The audit said that if the two policies were better supported, they could make an “immediate impact” on improving procurement.
Try This – I am curious why it would be best to use aircraft that is not also used in the US?
If our plane goes down over the U.S. we are able to have it fixed by the Americans or vice versa. If we use EU aircraft, they will not be able to fix it for us and we end up paying a lot more to have it sent back to Canada.
BUT BUT BUT…. Orange man Bad!
Everything we are doing right now makes no sense..
Really? But but but Carney just pumped a bunch of money into the military for all this to bring it up to snuff for the NATO requirements?? Where did it all go? Or did it really happen? was it all a bluff and chess move, moving the Coast Guard under the CAF. That was it. But money is gone. Where? Tax dollars we are told have been spent. Where! Any new jets? Saab or otherwise? No. Any new ships or missiles? No. Supposed spending in the high Arctic where no one will really see it unless his media wh*res decide to do a story. Thats all I’ve heard of.
From what I understand, the military is still defining boys and girls and deciding if gays are allowed. Never hear much from our army. never see much. No parades, no nothing but Nov 11. Should really like to see what our military looks like now.
This has always been a Liberal failing – sweet heart pork barreling procurement which yield endless scandals & corruption, Our forces need the best equipment and weaponry in the world and our taxpayer need the best value in the world regardless of the country, province or riding where that may be.
Carney just does not get it. We do not want or need submarines.
We need marine vessels to patrol our arctic. We need aircraft, not controlled by the US, that function in our north. – We need to quit consulting (and paying) the natives every time we do something.