Ottawa fast-tracks weapon purchase as military commanders warn of numerous other gaps

Sur le même sujet

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  18 décembre 2017 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Le gouvernement du Canada a recours à l’approvisionnement pour aider les petites entreprises à croître et à créer des emplois

  Solutions innovatrices Canada, un programme de 100 millions de dollars, stimulera l'innovation et créera des emplois pour la classe moyenne Le 14 décembre 2017 — Ottawa En tant que principal acheteur de biens et de services canadiens, le gouvernement du Canada fera appel à l'approvisionnement pour aider les petites entreprises du pays à innover et à commercialiser leurs innovations. Le ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, l'honorable Navdeep Bains, et la leader du gouvernement à la Chambre des communes et ministre de la Petite Entreprise et du Tourisme, l'honorable Bardish Chagger, ont annoncé aujourd'hui la mise sur pied de Solutions innovatrices Canada, un programme de 100 millions de dollars qui incite les petites entreprises canadiennes à mettre au point des solutions novatrices pour répondre aux défis proposés par les ministères et les organismes fédéraux. Que le défi soit de trouver un moyen d'augmenter la résistance du blindage aux produits chimiques ou encore d'améliorer la connexion sans fil des véhicules connectés, les ministères et les organismes fédéraux demanderont aux petites entreprises d'innover et de proposer une solution. Le gouvernement s'associera ensuite à l'entreprise retenue et agira comme son premier client, en l'aidant à commercialiser son idée et à promouvoir la génération suivante de solutions qui pourront devenir des produits commerciaux viables. Vingt ministères et organismes fédéraux participeront au nouveau programme en ciblant des problèmes d'ordre militaire, économique ou environnemental. Solutions innovatrices Canada est un élément clé du Plan pour l'innovation et les compétences du gouvernement du Canada, une stratégie pluriannuelle visant à créer des emplois bien rémunérés pour la classe moyenne. Citations « Le nouveau programme Solutions innovatrices Canada mis de l'avant par notre gouvernement aura des retombées à bien des niveaux. Nous agissons de façon proactive et transformons nos défis en possibilités : des possibilités d'innovation, de croissance économique et de réussite des petites entreprises qui mèneront à l'établissement d'une économie d'innovation dynamique et à la création d'encore plus d'emplois pour la classe moyenne canadienne. » — Le ministre de l'Innovation, des Sciences et du Développement économique, l'honorable Navdeep Bains « Nous croyons que les petites entreprises innovatrices canadiennes sont bien placées pour aider le gouvernement à relever certains défis particulièrement coriaces. Par l'entremise du programme Solutions innovatrices Canada, nous demanderons aux entrepreneurs de créer de nouveaux produits et services qui nous aideront à relever ces défis, et nous les aiderons à prendre de l'expansion dans de nouveaux marchés et à trouver de nouveaux clients à l'échelle internationale. Les avantages de ce programme sont clairs : le gouvernement du Canada pourra obtenir de nouveaux produits et services pour améliorer son travail, et des exploitants de petites entreprises qui redoublent d'efforts pour réussir pourront prendre de l'expansion et créer des emplois bien rémunérés pour la classe moyenne. » — La leader du gouvernement à la Chambre des communes et ministre de la Petite Entreprise et du Tourisme, l'honorable Bardish Chagger « Notre communauté d'investisseurs, d'incubateurs et d'accélérateurs offre de l'encadrement, ouvre des portes et fournit du capital aux entreprises canadiennes en démarrage qui cherchent à croître et à se développer. Dans bien des cas, le fait de décrocher un “premier client” constitue une validation essentielle qui permet à ces entreprises de s'implanter sur le marché local et le marché mondial. Le programme Solutions innovatrices Canada qui a été annoncé aujourd'hui aidera les entreprises canadiennes à b'tir leur clientèle plus tôt et permettra aux Canadiens de bénéficier de l'adoption de solutions innovatrices conçues ici au pays. » — La présidente du conseil d'administration de la National Angel Capital Organization (NACO Canada), Sandi Gilbert Faits en bref Le financement du programme sera fourni par les 20 ministères et organismes participant au programme Solutions innovatrices Canada. Chaque entité réservera 1 % de ses dépenses de recherche-développement à cette initiative. Solutions innovatrices Canada est modelé sur le programme américain Small Business Innovation Research. Il constitue une composante essentielle des efforts du gouvernement du Canada pour aider les petites entreprises. Solutions innovatrices Canada encouragera les entreprises détenues et dirigées par des femmes, des Autochtones, des jeunes et des groupes traditionnellement sous représentés à présenter des soumissions. https://www.canada.ca/fr/innovation-sciences-developpement-economique/nouvelles/2017/12/le_gouvernement_ducanadaarecoursalapprovisionnementpouraiderlesp.html

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  8 mai 2019 | Local, Aérospatial

  Matt Gurney: Is it any wonder the U.S. is steamed at us over our fighter jet fiasco?

  Matt Gurney One can only imagine the astonishment in Ottawa when a letter arrived from Washington, reminding the Canadian government that military procurement projects are about procuring military equipment, not creating Canadian jobs. I like to imagine flabbergasted bureaucrats reading the letter over and over, before finally putting it down, rubbing their temples and musing aloud, “Don't the Americans realize how things are done here?” They do, it seems. And they don't like it. On Monday, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute published a new report, “Catastrophe: Assessing the Damage from Canada's Fighter Replacement Fiasco.” The title tells you most of what you need to know about the tone of the report. Author Richard Shimooka recaps the long and embarrassing history of Canada's inability to properly replace our rapidly aging and slowly attritting fleet of almost-40-year-old CF-18 jets. The report mostly covers a story that's been oft-told, including here in the National Post. But it did break some news: apparently, Washington's frustration with Canada is boiling over, and it's not keeping quiet about it anymore. Shimooka recaps the long and embarrassing history of Canada's inability to properly replace our rapidly aging ... CF-18 jets Shimooka's report reveals the existence of two letters previously unknown to the public, sent last year by American officials to Canadian counterparts. The specifics of the complaints involve fairly legalistic and technical aspects of Canada's membership in the international consortium that helped finance the development of the F-35 stealth fighter. Suffice it to say that Canada, as a participating nation, gets access to a rock-bottom price for the fighter (meaning the same cost paid by the U.S. military) and Canadian firms have been part of the production of the planes from the very beginning. That's the deal. It's a pretty good one. But Canada wants a different deal. Specifically, it wants the same kind of deal it always insists on when buying military equipment from abroad. We want any foreign company we're purchasing equipment from to invest heavily in Canada, so that even a contract signed with a foreign supplier can be shown to have helped Canadian jobs, and the middle class, and those working hard to join it. Even this is only a second-best option, a procurement Plan B. Canadian politicians would much rather have stuff built in Canada by Canadians, no matter how much that ends up costing us in terms of cost overruns and delays. But when that's simply not possible, we'll settle for industrial offsets from foreign companies. You'll note that in the above paragraph on military procurement, there was very little emphasis on actually successfully procuring equipment for the Armed Forces. Ottawa is much too sophisticated for that kind of concern. The real action is in the jobs, the industrial benefits, the gigantic novelty cheques, the ribbon cuttings, the question period talking points and the partisan mailers crowing about all the money flowing to Canadian firms. That's what military procurement is really for, at least in the eyes of Canadian officials. That's why our national shipbuilding strategy was to first build out a shipbuilding industry and then build some ships, almost as an afterthought, when we could have bought them faster and almost certainly cheaper from an ally. The Americans, it seems, have had enough, and are threatening to pull the F-35 from consideration in Canada's upcoming program to select our next fighter. To their mind, Canada has already been offered an objectively good deal: access to one of the world's most advanced fighter jets at the same cost the U.S. military pays, and billions in industrial benefits. It's true that the F-35 program has been troubled, but most of those problems are now behind it. These jets are entering service in large numbers in the U.S. military and in allied forces, as well. The F-35 isn't perfect but it's available, now, and Canada has already paid the cost of entry to the club. Angling for a better deal than everyone else is getting, is a slap in the face to the Americans and all the other allied nations who are part of the process. Angling for a better deal than everyone else is getting, is a slap in the face to the Americans Now a cynic will say that it's just good business. There's nothing wrong with Canada trying to get the best deal for itself. In general, I have an open mind to this kind of argument. But Canada isn't a business. It's a country that has signed alliances and agreements with our democratic peers, theoretically in good faith. We have our own interests, to be sure, but we also have obligations. Canada's membership in the F-35 consortium does not obligate us to buy F-35s. We'd retain the industrial benefits even if we select another fighter. But certainly it obligates us to at least honour the agreement we've already made? The Liberals have never been keen on the F-35. Before the past election, they actually pledged to never purchase them, before realizing that that was an impossible pledge to keep if we actually intended to hold a fair and open competition to select the next plane. The prime minister himself once dismissively described the F-35 as a plane that didn't work, even as the United States was putting its first squadron into active service. Part of me wonders if the Liberals are deliberately structuring our selection process to make it impossible for the U.S. to sell us F-35s. That would certainly solve that particular problem for the Liberals. Alas, the more realistic answer is probably, as ever, the simplest one. The Canadian government is probably baffled that the Americans would object to us behaving as we always do. Military procurement in Canada isn't about procurement, or the military, or honouring our commitments to our friends. It's about political booty that can be flung around the country come election time. That's just the way we do things here. Why would that ever change? https://nationalpost.com/opinion/matt-gurney-is-it-any-wonder-the-u-s-is-steamed-at-us-over-our-fighter-jet-fiasco

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  20 avril 2021 | Local, Naval

  MBDA to supply Sea Ceptor weapon system for Canadian CSC frigates

  MBDA announced on 19 April it has been awarded a contract from Lockheed Martin to equip the Royal Canadian Navy's (RCN's) new single class of 15 Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) multimission frigates with the Sea Ceptor air-defence weapon sy...