The Thursday Question 2:27: Governing with the Centre
Shimooka, McKay, and Perry on defence procurement
The August publishing hiatus brought the sad news about Chuck Strahl. His passing is mourned in many corners . First elected in the 1993 uprising, he served in opposition for more than a decade. Along the way, he helped build and break a few political parties. I like to think his experience in opposition added to the wisdom he deployed so well as a minister. It speaks well of his character that his years in politics deepened rather than diminished his faith. Sympathies to Deb, Mark, and the Strahl family.
And there was other sad news about John Williams. Will there ever be a better Chair of Public Accounts? A better friend to auditors-general? A better parliamentary publication than The Waste Report? His legacy includes both OGGO and Garry Keller. Good work on both counts.
Fortunately, the hiatus also brought happy news from the Thomas family. Congratulations to Rachael and Victor.
The last issue of The Thursday Question addressed the Privy Council Office (PCO), the Prime Minister’s department of government, and promised a follow-up. Eventually, I will link PCO to Mr. Poilievre’s proposal for a review of Canadian taxation. But during the hiatus, Richard Shimooka wrote in TheHub.ca about reforming defense procurement, and MP John McKay discussed the Defence Committee’s procurement report with Dave Perry. While I believe neither Shimooka nor McKay get it right, Dave Perry’s insights, shared in a weekend National Post interview with Donna Kennedy-Glans, are spot on.
Future prime ministers who want to improve defence procurement should begin by assigning someone at PCO to oversee major projects. That should include maritime procurement, since the Navy’s shipbuilding efforts are linked to the Coast Guard’s.
The ongoing defence and maritime procurement program is vast and growing by the day. Planes, ships, boats and vehicles are all past the end of their service lives and global security concerns are making the need for speed more urgent. The program involves many departments and ministers. National Defence and the Coast Guard determine what they need; Industry (ISED) assesses the program’s potential for Canadian industry; Public Services and Procurement runs the process and manages the contracts; Treasury Board checks that financial and other rules are being followed; and Justice handles the inevitable litigation.
Coordinating this work is demanding, but coordinating work is a core function of government. Shimooka suggests the work could be streamlined if it could all be consolidated into a single, independently staffed government agency. Unity of command has proven its worth in wartime. But in other parts of civilian government, checks and balances have proven their worth over the centuries. When multiple decision-makers and multiple interests all have to be involved, trust eventually emerges. Canadian-style cabinet government may lack checks and balances (1), but why would any prime minister entrust a single minister or a single agency to make all the decisions over procurement without imposing some checks and balances?
Yet, this is precisely what Shimooka proposes—a single new agency to handle almost all decisions about defence procurement. He hopes the new agency could bring a balanced approach to the policy considerations. Treasury Board’s oversight of spending would "likely" remain, but Shimooka even suggests exempting the new agency from the public service staffing system. So, one agency to decide what needs to be bought, when, from whom, and under what conditions? An agency that doesn’t exchange staff with the rest of government, doesn’t have to account to anyone for its hiring decisions, and which might not have to justify how it spends its hundred billion dollar budget to anyone except, maybe, one minister? “Prime minister, please bet the future of Canada and $100 billion or more with this blank cheque.”
Assuming such an agency of that scale is even a good idea, establishing will take at least a decade. For context, consider the experience of creating P3 Canada. If anyone involved in that agency is still around Ottawa, it’s worth a few beers to ask them how it went.