Description:
Defence expert Kim Richard Nossal presents a damning indictment of defence procurement in Canada, and shows how to fix it.
Defence procurement in Canada is a mess. New equipment is desperately needed for the Canadian Armed Forces, but most projects are behind schedule, over budget, or both. Not only has mismanagement cost Canadian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, it has also deprived Canada and the CAF of much-needed military capacity.
Successive governments -- both Liberal and Conservative -- have managed the complexities of defence procurement so poorly that it will take years before the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Canadian Army regain the capabilities they need. While new prime ministers invariably come to power promising to fix problems inherited from their predecessors, getting it right has remained frustratingly elusive.
Charlie Foxtrot offers a fresh take on this important policy issue. It shows why governments have found it so difficult to equip the CAF efficiently, and offers a set of political prescriptions for fixing defence procurement in Canada.
Brief description:
Ferry de Kerckhove is a Fellow of the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute, Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa, Adjunct Professor, Department of Political Science, Cape Breton University, and the former High Commissioner of Canada to Pakistan and Ambassador to Indonesia and Egypt.
Review Quotes: Kim Richard Nossal has written a perceptive and invaluable analysis of the "mess" that for too long has characterized the Canadian military procurement process. By focusing on the broader policy and political context he provides insightful explanations for Ottawa's chronic inability to acquire weapons in a timely and fiscally responsible manner and offers compellingly credible recommendations of what needs to be done to make it right. Charlie Foxtrot should elicit an enthusiastic "Bravo Zulu", very well done indeed, from those in and out of uniform who are concerned about the future of the Canadian Armed Forces.-- "Joel J. Sokolsky, Professor of Political Science, Royal Military College of Canada"