By Moderator, 13 April 2022
The Naval Association of Canada has produced another good Briefing Note. This one is entitled “Actors and Stages of Warship Procurement” (BN#45). It takes a tremendously complicated process and explains in simple language what federal government actors are involved, and what the stages are for the National Shipbuilding Strategy and, in particular, to build the Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC). As the BN explains, in addition to the government and Treasury Board, the maritime procurement process of the NSS involves four core federal departments – Department of National Defence (DND), the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)/Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), and Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED). More actors mean more complication. The BN then looks at the general stages of the defence procurement process. The stages are Identification, Options Analysis, Definition, Implementation and Close-Out. The CSC is in the definition stage and has been since the end of May 2019. What happens in the definition stage? Why is it taking so long to move on to the implementation stage? Excellent questions. The BN does a good job of untangling and explaining this glacially slow process. Check it out at https://www.navalassoc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/BN45-Stages-of-warship-construction.pdf.
