Many different parliamentary committees have studied defence procurement and made numerous recommendations. The Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs made 38 recommendations in 2000149, followed by another 49 in a report from the Advisory Committee on Administrative Efficiency in 2003150, and 55 in a Government-Wide Review of Procurement by Public Works and Government Services Canada in 2005151.
These recommendations focused on making the approvals process more adaptable to the level of scrutiny required, producing regular updates to the combat planning assumptions, bringing the evaluation of off-the-shelf products in line with other government departments, and developing the skills of managers (e.g., through certification).
More recently, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on National Defence undertook a review of procurement and associated processes in 2008152. A proposal for a single organisation ('Defence Procurement Canada') combining the procurement resources from DND and the contracting resources of PWGSC was rejected. The ten recommendations made focused on the transparency and accountability of the procurement process, requesting that a national defence capability plan be made public.
Following this report, the Canada First Defence Strategy was launched by the Canadian Government in May 2008 with the intention of outlining clear missions and capabilities to ensure Canadian Forces have the necessary manpower, equipment and support available for the next 20 years153. The investments required to implement the Canada First Defence Strategy are supported by an increase in long-term funding by on average 2.7% p.a. (0.6% in real terms) to 2027-28. This is intended to reverse the trend of the significant cuts to defence funding in the 1990s which resulted in an overall decline of the Forces' equipment affecting all three services, for example, the disposal of one of three replenishment ships and one of four destroyers; the elimination of almost half the aircraft in the Air Force, and a significant portion of its fighting and utility vehicles from the Army. Over the last two years, the Canadian Government has committed resources to rebuilding the Forces and made decisions related to the most urgent equipment needs.
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149 'Procurement Study Report', Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs (2000)
150 'Achieving Administrative Efficiency', Advisory Committee on Administrative Efficiency (Aug 2003)
151 Final Report of Parliamentary Secretary's Task Force on Government-Wide Review of Procurement (2005)
152 'Procurement and associated processes', Standing Committee on National Defence (Feb 2008)
153 'Canada First Defence Strategy', DND (May 2008)