Documents show officials discussing risk of sole-source contracts
New court documents show public servants discussing the risk to taxpayers as successive federal governments have turned to sole-source contracts to buy desperately needed equipment for the Canadian Forces and others.
The documents were filed on behalf of suspended Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, who is charged with breach of trust in connection with one such contract. They land amid frustrations with Canada’s military procurement system — including because of political mismanagement — that have led to the need for quick fixes.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has chosen to sign several sole-source contracts to bolster the coast guard’s aging icebreaking fleet and the country’s fighter-jet force, buying time to find permanent replacements.
Sole-sourcing does make sense in many cases, said defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, particularly where there is an emergency or it’s clear that only one company can meet the government’s needs.
“But if you’re sole-sourcing to fill a capability gap, that’s the result of mismanaging a procurement to the point where you are out of options and have no alternative,” Perry said. “That’s not really a good reason to be solesourcing.”
The Tories under Stephen Harper once intended to buy a fleet of F-35 fighter jets on an untendered contract, but aborted that plan in 2012 once the full price became known.
Then the Trudeau government planned to spend about $6 billion on 18 sole-sourced “interim” Super Hornets from Boeing because it said Canada needed more fighter jets to support its aging CF-18s until replacements could be purchased through a competition. The Super Hornets deal eventually fell apart because of a trade dispute with Boeing. So the government is buying 25 second-hand Australian fighter jets, also without a competition. Canada isn’t expected to get new fighter jets until at least 2025.