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Mark Stobbe's avatar

There is one more thing - there needs to be an understanding that the purpose of a weapon system is to be a weapon, not to be a mechanism for "economic development" - that is, creating jobs in some particular riding or part of the country. Note that the handgun procurement exercise alluded to (and with the link to the excellent article) has taken well over a decade because it started with a desire to have the jobs in one place. Just go buy the damn guns - even Cabellas would be a better option than what we have now.

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Jeff Donaldson's avatar

After 20 yrs in uniform within military procurement, I believe the issues are with the process not the govt, ministers or parliament at all. The paradigm that is procurement is laced with absolute risk aversion, Industrial benefits and the delusion that repetitive competitions trump multi-decade relationships. It’s the unjustified need to “canadianize” everything, instead of Military Off The Shelf MOTS. So, no, it’s largely not the politicians, but the enshrined Treasury Board enabled requirements. Fix the process and a puppet minister could get procurement done rapidly.

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