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The PBO acknowledged that comparing the specific capabilities of the ships was beyond the scope of its report. But they are clearly comparable at the most basic level — after all, the Asterix was commissioned only because the JSS program had not produced any ships yet. And there is one very obvious point of comparison: one shipyard is building ships on time and on budget, while the other is years behind schedule and will cost taxpayers far more.
Beyond that, the telling fact that the shipyard that produces the best ships for the Navy at the lowest price isn’t building all four ships underscores just how badly mangled the procurement process is. Rather than focusing on a simple objective — best product, lowest price — governments have long succumbed to a quintessentially Canadian pandering problem: spreading the work around geographically to ensure that if there’s work for a shipyard in Quebec City, there’s also work for shipyards in Vancouver and Halifax. While this preoccupation with interregional fairness may be well-intentioned, the end result is a much bigger bill for taxpayers.
Post-pandemic fiscal reality should make governments more focused on value for money. Luckily for the Trudeau government, there’s low-hanging fruit in areas like procurement. Going forward, the government needs to ensure procurement hits the main policy objective: getting the most bang for the taxpayer buck.
Aaron Wudrick is federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
