The issue is how we spend the money__ Stephen Fuhr

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I UPLOAD LATEST NEWS AND WETHER INFORMATION  _The issue is how we spend the money__ Stephen Fuhr

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00:00We'll start today with Ottawa's latest push to pivot away from reliance on the

00:07United States. The Liberal government is looking to rearm the Canadian Armed

00:11Forces while simultaneously boosting domestic, rather, defense manufacturing.

00:15It comes at a low point though for Canada-US relations and ahead of Prime

00:19Minister Mark Carney's second trip down to Washington DC where he's set to meet

00:24with US President Donald Trump. Stephen Fuhrer is the Secretary of State for

00:28defense procurement. He'll be overseeing the new agency. Hi Minister, it's a

00:31pleasure to welcome you to our program. Thanks so much for making the time.

00:34Thank you for having me, Vashi. According to D&D's own website, it takes on

00:38average for major defense projects, like the whole procurement cycle, somewhere on

00:43average between 10 and 15 years. How much faster will that be under this new agency?

00:47Remarkably faster. That is completely unacceptable. It shouldn't take that long.

00:52It's exacerbated by the fact that the technology cycle is actually getting

00:57smaller and the defense procurement cycle is getting longer. So that even adds more

01:02stress to the situation because the thing that you wanted on day one, delivered 10

01:06years into the future, is virtually irrelevant. So we absolutely have to make

01:10us faster in this single point of accountability with the resources and

01:13authorities that it now has is going to be capable of delivering much, much faster.

01:18What is remarkably faster like? Can you quantify that? And I'm asking, you know, not just to

01:22sort of come out of nowhere, but because we do have that average number, because there's

01:26been so many big projects that we focused on over the years that we know how long those take.

01:31Like, how do we hold your government accountable? What is remarkably faster?

01:35Well, like you said, there's there's a long history of of how fast it has been done. I mean,

01:40we can only control what we can control. Like we can control the process that we choose. And

01:45there's a number of procurement practices that we can choose. Some are faster than others.

01:49I need defense to deliver me requirements faster. They will move. I mean, and money doesn't seem

01:58to be the issue. The issue with the money is how we spend the money. That has been a barrier. People

02:02go through a project and then there's no funding and then it sits on a shelf for a long time.

02:06That doesn't seem to be the barrier moving forward. The challenge with the money bit is

02:10parlaying that spend into a way that benefits Canada the most effective way and delivers jobs for

02:18Canadians. But money will be there because that's a priority. So defense needs to deliver requirements

02:24faster. We will pick best in show or best in practice procurement processes that deliver faster.

02:31And this whole thing will go faster. I'll give you one example. Submarines. There was, I think, 24-ish

02:38responses to an RFI on on submarines. We looked at them, evaluated them, and decided that there was two

02:45qualified suppliers. Now we're having two of them square off to see who's going to deliver. In this

02:51particular case, best benefit to Canada economically because both submarines meet the Navy's high level

02:58requirements. So we had said contract award in 2028. I'm hoping to do it next year. I'm going to ask this

03:04one more time. What are the metrics that we're going to judge you by that, right? Like, I take your point on

03:09the example of submarines, but just put yourself in our shoes as Canadians. And you've been on the other end,

03:14too. You've listened so many times. Different governments say, hey, we've got the fix to this

03:19massive problem that we have. I understand the context is different right now, that the crisis

03:23we face vis-a-vis the United States is different. But, like, you're just saying it's going to be

03:26faster. You can't tell me on average it'll be five years faster or three years faster or even what the

03:31target would be. Yeah. And part of the reason is we don't control the whole process. Like, we control

03:37major aspects of it, but there's other things that I don't control. I mean, vendor returns. There's a whole

03:42bunch of things that I have no control over. So I can't give you a specific number because

03:47I don't have control over the entire process. I think that's the most logical answer I can give you.

03:51But if I go back to the process and the fact that the funds are available and will be protected in

03:56the budget and that we have remarkably changed it in a way that had never been changed before,

04:01we have the resources we need. And there's absolutely no reason to think this won't go much,

04:06much faster. I wanted to also ask about the impetus for doing this as far as it was conveyed during the

04:10election, which is to move away from spending a lot of our defense procurement money in the United

04:15States. The prime minister had said it's 75 cents on every dollar and that the goal would be to reduce

04:20that through this agency. I was reading some analysis last week, though, with the Hill Times,

04:25which indicated that in the first half of this year, so for half that period, your government has

04:29been in charge. And prior to that, the threat from Trump was also there. U.S.-based firms received more

04:34than $68.6 million in contracts awarded by D&D, which is a 24% increase over the same period the

04:40previous year. Why should Canadians, minister, believe this agency will be able to do what your

04:45government, even under the threat of Trump, has not yet been able to do? Well, you bring up a good

04:50point. I mean, these are, you know, to our earlier conversations, these things had been in the hopper for

04:55years. And this new reality that we live in vis-a-vis the United States is 10 months old. So it's like turning

05:02around an oil tanker. It just doesn't happen on a dime. So, I mean, I guess what we could have done

05:07is just cancelled everything. And what would have that done to the timeline of delivering things to

05:11our military? It would have made a mess of it, right? So we are doing what we can. Moving forward,

05:17we have a couple different lenses to apply to our procurements. One is, can we do it in Canada?

05:23How can we maximize every dollar into our own supply chain, into our own great Canadian companies? How many

05:30jobs can we create? That's a new lens. And the other lens is, who are we going to partner with

05:35moving forward? Which like-minded nations do we want to have these long-term relationships with?

05:40And what else can we do with these nations? Can we parlay them into a bigger economic relationship?

05:45Because this defense spend is substantial. And there has to be other ways that we can capitalize on it.

05:52Spend it in Canada? Yep. And spend it with other countries that we want to work with and maybe build

05:56out other projects. There's tons of opportunity. But to your point, I mean, the way we did things

06:02the same way for decades, that does not change overnight. And how will Canadians be able to

06:08judge the success or lack thereof on that? I heard a number of different exchanges, you know,

06:12with journalists today in which you didn't want to put a target. What's the target? 50% from the U.S.

06:17less than 50% different than that. Again, I understand it's a complex situation, but from the outside,

06:23if we're trying to say like, have we actually achieved, has your government actually achieved

06:28what you said you wanted to do? How will we be able to judge that? And are you kind of hoping

06:32that we won't by not putting a number on it? No, no. I mean, in terms of the, it's a very

06:38difficult thing to put a number on because it's really a weapon system specific or, you know,

06:42whatever it is, the good or service we're trying to procure, it's very specific. I mean,

06:47if the United States is the only place on planet earth that we can get something that we absolutely need

06:52to do a job that we ask our Canadian Armed Forces to do, odds are we're going to buy it from the

06:56United States. We haven't ended their relationship with the United States. It is just going to look

07:01different. It makes no sense for Canada to be so reliant on one particular supplier for anything,

07:07whether it be the United States or anybody else. I wanted to conclude by asking about the F-35s

07:11against exactly the backdrop that you just laid out. I heard you say at your press conference that

07:16you don't feel any pressure to make a decision about the F-35s despite the initial deadline or

07:21timeline being provided by your government at the end of the summer. I was just wondering why you

07:26don't feel any pressure. The U.S. ambassador, for example, intimated to me in an interview in May

07:30that his country would be reconsidering NORAD if we dropped the F-35s. That seems

07:35like a pressure-filled decision, no? Well, I mean, I think I read something about that too. I mean,

07:40we're an equal partner with NORAD, an equal partner with NORAD, and we're a sovereign country. So we

07:46will make our own decisions based on our own needs. I mean, it's that simple. I know the ambassador and

07:52other people have said things in the press to maybe indicate that they don't necessarily understand

07:58that, but Canada will stand on its own feet. We'll work with Americans where we can and we'll stand on

08:04our own two feet where we have to. This is an important decision for us. Like I mentioned earlier,

08:09if you saw it, we're under contract for 16 planes. The airplanes are in various stages of being

08:14manufactured at the supplier in the U.S. No decision's been made. It's a very complicated

08:22file, and the Prime Minister will make a decision when he's ready. So this second sober look at what

08:30we're going to do moving forward isn't slowing anything down, and we'll take the time we need

08:33to get the decision right. That is the most important aspect of this decision. But I mean,

08:37when it comes to the timeline, and you would know better than me given your experience in the

08:40military, but those CF-18s are, you know, older than 30 years old. The Australian stop gaps are

08:45also very old. Operational readiness has dropped in some years. Less than 60 percent of our fleet,

08:51for example, is available. And once again, I think to the outside, that feels like there is pressure to

08:57make a decision. Combine that with what the U.S. is saying about NORAD, which despite our relationship

09:01right now, is integral to the defense of this continent. Like, why are you guys not able to

09:05even meet a deadline that you set yourselves for the end of the summer? Well, like I said,

09:09the more you look at it, the more that you consider it. We've done a lot of things in

09:13the 34 sitting days that has happened. Major Projects Office, Build Canada Homes, the DIA,

09:18you know, all the legislators, C5 through the House of Commons. I mean, there's literally a whole host

09:24of things that are happening right now at great speed because of the moment that we face. So this

09:30is an important decision, but there's lots of them to make. And, you know, like I said, we're on

09:36contract for 16 airplanes. So we have, you know, airplanes going through the system. And when the

09:42Prime Minister has all the information that he needs, he'll make the decision. All right, Minister,

09:46I'm going to leave it on that note. Appreciate your time very much. Thank you. Thank you very much for

09:49having me on the show.

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