Major government defence projects take an average of 16 years to move through the full procurement pipeline, according to a recent report from the federal procurement watchdog. The report, released June 16, found the length of time for major defence procurements ranged from about 7 to 28 years, depending on the complexity of the project.
Although experts interviewed for the report were largely optimistic about recent government initiatives to help speed up the system, such as the establishment of the new Defence Investment Agency (DIA), it “remains unclear” how the changes will shake up the status quo.
“Canada’s defence procurement system has reached a decisive moment,” said the report, which was produced by the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman (OPO), an independent government organization working to promote fairness and transparency in federal procurement. “Years of delayed acquisitions, unspent funding, and operational capability gaps for the Canadian Armed Forces have unfolded against a rapidly deteriorating global security environment.”
The report outlined 16 “considerations” to help improve a procurement system described by experts as “overly complex, time-consuming, costly, risk-averse, and one that ultimately has fallen short.” The work draws largely from in-depth interviews with 10 defence procurement experts, split between academia, government and industry.
Most of the interviews took place before Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government released its long-anticipated Defence Industrial Strategy but after it announced the DIA, a centralized military procurement arm intended to consolidate defence procurement under one roof. Over decades, the federal government has faced heavy criticism over its sluggish process for replacing aging military equipment ranging from pistols to fighter jets.
In 2026, Canada announced it had met its NATO obligation to spend two per cent of GDP on defence, which it accomplished partly by shifting the Canadian Coast Guard from under the purview of the Department of Fisheries Oceans (DFO) to the Department of National Defence (DND). Canada has also committed to meet an updated five per cent NATO spending target by 2035.
Overall, experts consulted for the report viewed the DIA as an “important step” toward achieving that goal by addressing longstanding challenges in a siloed and sluggish system. However, they also sought greater clarity on how the agency will function. The government has been working to rapidly build up the DIA since it was established last October. In a Commons committee appearance in February, CEO Doug Guzman said the agency was in the process of hiring up to 400 staff largely by pulling from three federal departments — Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC); Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED); and the Department of National Defence (DND) — as well as bringing in “a small number of folks” from the private sector.
