Senator Carignan: Speaking of making decisions to meet the needs of the Armed Forces, we learned this week that our troops deployed in Latvia are so under-equipped that they have to procure essential protective equipment themselves, using their own money.

This is despite the fact that the government doesn’t spend its entire procurement budget. In 2021, it left $1 billion on the table without spending it.

How can you explain to Canadian military personnel that they have to pay for protective equipment out of their own pockets, when their colleagues, especially the Danes, are better equipped, not to mention that the Danish government buys its equipment from Canada?

Hon. Claude Carignan: My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Leader, the Government of Canada is preparing to replace 14 CP-140 Aurora aircraft, surveillance planes that are used by the Royal Canadian Air Force to patrol Canada’s coastlines.

Under the army’s procurement system, which is known for being ineffective, the Government of Canada seems to have decided or wants to grant this $9-billion contract directly to aerospace company Boeing, not to name names, rather than hold an open bidding process under which a Canadian consortium, Bombardier and General Dynamics, could make a bid and provide equivalent equipment.

That does not make any sense because usually the government would award a direct contract to favour a Canadian company, but in this case, it is awarding a direct contract that will negatively impact a Canadian company.

Can the Leader of the Government explain what this government is thinking?