Joint Statement from the Chief of the Defence Staff and Office of the National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces Ombud

On the same subject

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  March 27, 2020 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  NRC COVID-19 response

  The Government of Canada is taking strong and quick action to protect our economy, and the health and safety of all Canadians during this global outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). We are working with our partners as part of the collective effort to help find solutions to the COVID-19 outbreak: 1. The COVID-19 Challenges Procurement Program: NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program and Innovative Solutions Canada Purpose: This program will post challenges seeking near-to-market solutions from small and medium-sized businesses (fewer than 500 staff) that need financial support from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to refine and sell their product or solution to meet a COVID-19 related need. NRC IRAP works with roughly 8,000 small and medium-sized businesses every year through its cross-Canada network of 255 industrial technology advisors and provides over $300 million in support to more than 3,000 technology development projects annually Through this initiative, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Health Canada (HC) will establish a number of challenges corresponding to needs of health providers to deal with COVID-19 NRC IRAP will partner with Innovative Solutions Canada to launch calls for proposals over the next few weeks to address challenges, fund development of solutions, and buy successful products and services needed to address COVID-19 Together, NRC IRAP and Innovative Solutions Canada will: post the PHAC and HC challenges (Innovative Solutions Canada) award Phase 1 funding to successful small and medium-sized businesses to develop a proof of concept for their solution (NRC IRAP) award Phase 2 funding to the firms with the best concepts so they can develop a working prototype (NRC IRAP) The NRC, PHAC, HC or another federal department or agency will then be able purchase the product for use against COVID-19. Innovative Solutions Canada already has challenges in development, which they will begin posting to their website in the coming days. These will continue as PHAC, HC, and health care providers request new topics. Companies with promising technology relevant to the COVID-19 challenges can register their technology or product by clicking on the Register button below. Register 2. The Pandemic Response Challenge Program: National Research Council of Canada Purpose: This program will build teams to address challenges requiring further research and development for solutions to meet COVID-19 related needs. The NRC will build these teams drawing on internal-to-government capacity and academic researchers who register using the button below to indicate their interest, and related areas of expertise and capabilities. The NRC will receive $15M to form dedicated teams to address challenges in the areas of greatest research and development (R&D) need in the fight against COVID-19. The NRC Pandemic Response Challenge Program will accelerate the development of diagnostics and medical countermeasures for a rapid front-line response to protect and treat Canadians. This national vehicle will convene the best Canadian and international researchers from academia and small and medium-sized businesses to collectively accelerate R&D to address specific COVID-19 gaps and challenges as identified by Canadian health experts. The Pandemic Response Challenge Program is currently structured around 3 main research areas: Rapid detection and diagnosis Therapeutics and vaccine development and Digital health. Researchers at Canadian and international universities, government departments, colleges, and highly innovative firms with relevant expertise can now register their interest to work with us on these challenges by clicking the Register button below. Funding is available to help cover the costs of research for academic institutions, small and medium-sized businesses, and other eligible recipients participating in the challenge teams. Over the coming weeks, we will post the specific R&D challenges, send information to registered researchers, and invite them to indicate the expertise and capabilities they can bring to a team. Register 3. Biomanufacturing capacity at Royalmount: NRC Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre Purpose: This initiative will result in a Good Manufacturing Practices platform to develop and scale up COVID-19 Canadian vaccine and therapy candidates. The NRC Biomanufacturing facility, located in the NRC's Royalmount Avenue building in Montréal, is used to develop and scale up processes to produce biological medicines and is managed by the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre. As part of its development capacity, the facility is equipped with pilot-scale bioreactors (200 L and 500 L), which will be operationally available to produce up to 100,000 doses of vaccine per month within 6 months once a vaccine suitable for front-line responders is available. A $15 million investment will fund the certification of the facility for Good Manufacturing Practices compliance, and will enable production of material that will be used in humans, particularly for vaccines or therapeutics. This certification can also greatly increase the capacity for candidate vaccines or therapeutics to be quickly rolled out and clinically tested, particularly those originating from Canada. The work to refine and certify quality systems at the facility will include: bringing the existing facility to regulatory standards, installing equipment to expand capacity, and managing information. Once certified, this facility will be able to accelerate the scale-up production and testing of various types of vaccine candidates in the context of the current COVID-19 outbreak, including protein-based, viral vector-based, and antibody-based products. https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-development/research-collaboration/nrc-covid-19-response

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  October 4, 2018 | Local, Naval

  Chinese-made equipment in Canada's Arctic ships under scrutiny

  Murray Brewster · CBC News Canadian queries about Chinese content could be response to American anxiety, says intelligence expert Canada's international trade minister quietly sounded out officials at the Department of National Defence last spring about how much of the content in the navy's new Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships could be sourced back to China, newly released documents reveal. The unusual April request from the office of François​-Philippe Champagne, who was international trade minister at the time, was made as Canadian negotiators were struggling to negotiate a revised North American Free Trade Agreement with the Trump administration — which has become increasingly suspicious of the involvement of Chinese companies in the defence and high-tech sectors. An information note, detailing the answers given to Champagne, was prepared for Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and obtained by CBC News under access to information law. "Equipment has been sourced from a variety of manufacturers, many of whom are offshore, with a very limited amount being procured from the People's Republic of China," said the April 4, 2018 briefing prepared by DND's project management office. Chinese steel The briefing made a point of underlining the Canadian content requirements that are part of every major capital project. It noted that 17 per cent of the steel being used to construct the warship — as well as the lifeboats, mooring and towing system components and various pipes and fittings — came from Chinese companies. Champagne was shuffled last summer to the infrastructure portfolio. Officials who worked for him said Wednesday they were not sure what his request was about. Defence and intelligence experts find the inquiry about the warship components curious — and not only because of Washington's growing trade fight with Beijing. The Pentagon has been quietly sounding out allies about who is building their military equipment, both hardware and software. "There's been some concern about this in ... U.S. military circles, about the degree to which there is Chinese ownership of firms working in sensitive areas," said Dave Perry, a procurement expert at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. "At a fairly high level, the U.S. (Department of Defence) was concerned about Canada having involvement of firms in defence supply chain that has Chinese angles, Chinese partial ownership." The documents demonstrate how hard it can be to trace the provenance of military parts. One of the firms supplying anchors for the Arctic ships was Apache International Ltd., which has listed itself as a Canadian company with an office in China. Following Champagne's questions, it was determined the original manufacturer of the equipment was Chinese. Wesley Wark, a University of Ottawa professor and one of the country's leading experts on cybersecurity and intelligence, said the Americans' concern relates mostly to electronics and other "warfighting equipment" — not necessarily the nuts and bolts. The U.S. Defence Department's acquisition chief said last summer the Pentagon was developing a so-called "Do Not Buy" list of software that does not meet national security standards. 'A certain xenophobia' Canadian concerns about Chinese product in the Arctic ships could be influenced by American concerns, said Wark, who noted that Canada has struck an independent tone when it comes to trade relations with China and has resisted U.S. and Australian pressure to ban Chinese telecom giant Huawei. "Canada has been under intense pressure by the Trump administration to follow the general lead on waging a trade war with China," he said. "There is White House pressure on the Pentagon. The Pentagon has legitimate concerns, like any Western military, about allowing certain elements of Chinese manufactured stuff into its infrastructure." Complicating matters is an almost-forgotten case of alleged espionage that is still grinding its way through the legal system. Chinese-born Qing Quentin Huang, who worked for Lloyd's Register, was charged in 2013 with "attempting to communicate with a foreign entity." He was accused of trying to pass design information about Canada's Arctic ships to the Chinese. Aside from its understandable military and economic policy concerns, Wark said the White House position on China is being driven in part by "a certain xenophobia" that is troubling. "You have to be careful not to find ourselves falling into that American model," he said. "We can make our own distinctions about what might be sensitive or dangerous." https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chinese-made-equipment-in-canada-s-arctic-ships-under-scrutiny-1.4849562

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  December 10, 2019 | Local, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

  Canada is rich - and cheap

  EUGENE LANG Eugene Lang is an adjunct professor at the School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, and a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. “It's Canada, they have money,” Donald Trump said at last week's NATO summit. Most of what the U.S. President says is either exaggerated or false, but occasionally he sums up in a sentence what everyone knows to be true. After admonishing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the summit for Canada's failure to meet, or strive toward, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's defence-spending target of 2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Mr. Trump pointed out an inconvenient truth. The President was saying Canada is rich and cheap. But just how rich is Canada? Among the Group of Seven -- a group of the richest countries in the world -- Canada enjoys the third-highest per-capita income and, since 2016, has led the G7 in economic growth. Canada also has the lowest net-debt-to-GDP ratio among those same seven countries, and the second-lowest national-government-deficit-to-GDP ratio. Which means, in essence, that Canada is the third-richest country in the G7 and the best in class with government finances. Successive governments in Ottawa have spent 20 years boasting about this strong national balance sheet to Canadians at every turn, and telling anyone abroad who would listen. This is why Mr. Trump knows that Canada does indeed have money. We are rich, at least compared with most other countries. But are we cheap? Canada spends about 1.3 per cent of GDP on national defence, tying us for fourth with Italy within the G7. Yet, Ottawa has never fully accepted the validity of the defence-spending-to-GDP measure. Both the Harper government – which signed the Wales Declaration, enshrining the 2-per-cent NATO target – and the Trudeau government have claimed input measures such as the GDP ratio don't tell the full story, and that output indicators are more meaningful. The defence output measure that is best understood is the extent to which a country's military is engaged in operations internationally. On that score, Canada looks terrible. We have fewer troops deployed abroad today on NATO, United Nations and other multilateral missions than in decades. To be sure, having influence internationally and carrying your fair share of global responsibility entails much more than the size or engagement of your military. Official Development Assistance (ODA), or foreign aid, is another important measure in this connection. Canada also ranks fourth among G7 countries in ODA as a percentage of gross national income (GNI). However, Ottawa is spending only 0.28 per cent, up slightly from 0.26 per cent last year, the lowest level this century. Fifty years ago, a World Bank Commission report, titled Partners in Development, recommended developed countries spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on aid. That Commission was chaired by Lester Pearson, former prime minister of Canada, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and a Canadian icon. Over the years, various Canadian governments have paid homage to Mr. Pearson's vision. Yet in the five decades since his report was published, Canada has rarely reached half of the Pearson target in any given year. Whether Ottawa likes or doesn't like input or output measures, or GDP or GNI ratios, doesn't really matter in the world of international politics. For better or worse, these are the indicators that are used to compare and assess the degree to which countries are living up to their obligations and responsibilities internationally. Imperfect as they are, these are measures of burden sharing. They are the statistics countries look at when considering whether Canada or any other country is pulling its weight globally. And on these measures, Canada looks middling at best, and bad at worst, by both international comparative standards. At the same time, we are among the world leaders in economic growth among developed countries, and we have held the gold medal in public finances for years. Rich and cheap, as it were. That was the essence of Mr. Trump's criticism of Canada this week at the NATO Summit. And foreign governments the world over know it to be true. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canada-is-rich-and-cheap/