OGGO meeting 44 · 2026-06-09 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

This House of Commons Government Operations and Estimates committee meeting studied the Buy Canadian policy, hearing from Richard Shimooka, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute; Dr. Noah Fry, a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University; James Yurichuk, CEO of Wuxly Defence; and Andy Straisfeld, President of MRE Canada.

Richard Shimooka argued that while increasing domestic defence production is laudable, Canada must avoid developing bespoke, high-cost capabilities that result in small, unsustainable "orphan fleets." He recommended that defence industrial development be guided by strategic and military needs, and cautioned that reshoring supply chains could lead to high costs and low production volumes, creating vulnerabilities similar to supply chain disruptions.

Dr. Noah Fry stated that the Buy Canadian policy is ambitious but limited by free trade commitments and a small supplier pool, finding that only nine of 56,000 contracts in 2025 could have been impacted. He identified four "leakage" loopholes, recommending the policy explicitly define excessive subcontracting and strengthen criteria for Canadian suppliers, suggesting Canadian employment as a key indicator, and also called for better data collection and a centralized office to scrutinize waiver conditions.

James Yurichuk emphasized that true domestic value requires Canadian ownership, IP, and manufacturing, not just a Canadian address, and argued that defence textiles and Arctic gear should be treated as strategic capabilities. He recommended that the policy prioritize Canadian-made goods, speed to contract, and a predictable project pipeline, and expressed concern that procurement delays and high proposal costs (up to $500,000) sideline SMEs.

Andy Straisfeld argued that the Buy Canadian policy must be a long-term strategic investment to build industrial capacity, not just a short-term purchasing exercise. He recommended meaningful and transparent Canadian content requirements, support for SMEs, and a focus on long-term industrial development, warning that without sustained procurement commitments, domestic capacity built during crises like COVID-19 is quickly lost.

The committee also debated a motion from Kelly Block to summon Michael Green, former CEO of Canada Health Infoway, to testify about the failed PrescribeIT program. Jenna Sudds argued the matter was being studied at other committees, while Marie-Hélène Gaudreau and Harb Gill supported the motion, citing the committee's responsibility to investigate the $300-million expenditure.

AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.

Witnesses · 4

Richard Shimooka

Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, As an Individual

Opening remarks

Thank you, Chair. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to this committee about the topic of buy Canadian provisions, with a specific focus on my own research, the defence industrial base. I'll keep my remarks short, as I'd like to maximize the amount of time for the members to ask questions with regard to their specific interests. On the whole, increasing the scale of domestic defence production is a laudable goal, but caution must be taken in how it is applied and where. Certainly, there have been notable successes in our history. The industrial buildup during the Second World War was a critical component of Allied war efforts and proved transformational for our country's economy. At the same time, care must be taken to avoid some of the less inspiring outcomes. We must avoid the temptation to develop highly specialized capabilities that are designed for bespoke Canadian requirements or tailored purely for domestic jobs. Our history is littered with examples of high-cost, low-capability orphan fleets, colloquially known as “unicorns”, that have not realized sustainable industrial outcomes. They consume scarce defence resources and have led to a less effective military.…

Full testimony ↗

Dr. Noah Fry

Killam Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, Dalhousie University, As an Individual

Opening remarks

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the buy Canadian policy here today. I am a post-doctoral fellow in the department of political science at Dalhousie University. My research centres on Canadian policy responses to a changing global economy. In my view, buy national procurement is an example of a mature response to this context. It offers new, good-paying jobs for Canadians while mitigating our supply chain vulnerabilities. It also has precedent. Our trading partners—namely, Australia, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the European Union—are doing the exact same thing. Through my own interactions with civil society actors, I know our partners are studying what we're doing very closely. On this front, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the buy Canadian policy may be the most ambitious of its kind in Canada to date. The bad news is that buy Canadian is limited. Our free trade commitments leave little room for buying national. This is compounded by a small supplier pool. On average, we receive less than two bids for a given tender. In turn, the delta between the status quo and buying Canadian is not as…