The brief titled “It’s Time to Engage the Military Procurement Brain Trust” discusses the need for reform in Canada’s military procurement process. It highlights two key government documents, the defence policy statement “Our Nation Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence” and the Standing Committee on National Defence’s report, “A Time for Change: Reforming Defence Procurement in Canada,” both of which express a commitment to improvement.
Rear-Admiral (Retired) Ian Mack outlines persistent procurement failures over the past decade and suggests adopting a “brain trust” model like President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, involving external experts to guide the procurement of major weapons platforms. Countries like Australia and the United Kingdom have successfully implemented brain trusts for defense, while Canada has yet to fully embrace such external expertise.Mack emphasizes that the brain trust must include knowledgeable individuals from various sectors to ensure credibility. He advocates for the creation of a standing brain trust to provide ongoing advice, helping to resolve inefficiencies in Canada’s military procurement system.
Two government documents released this year have included a clear intent to improve the military procurement
of major weapons platform acquisition projects – the recently released defence policy statement entitled ‘Our
Nation Strong and Free: A Renewed Vision for Canada’s Defence’ and the report by the Standing Committee on
National Defence entitled ‘A Time for Change: Reforming Defence Procurement in Canada’. In particular, the
latter report demonstrated in the testimony to the committee the richness of the many offered change mechanisms
from external observers, a capability that generally remains untapped, unconsidered and unimplemented.
After retiring from the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) as a Rear-
Admiral, Ian served for a decade (2007-2017) as a Director-
General in the Department of National Defence, responsible
for aspects of the launch of the National Shipbuilding Strategy
(NSS), and for guiding DND project managers for three RCN
shipbuilding projects and four vehicle projects for the Canadian
Army. Since leaving government, he has offered shipbuilding
and project management perspectives in many papers and
in person. Ian is a Fellow of the International Centre for
Complex Project Management, of the World Commercial and
Contracting Association and of the Canadian Global Affairs
Institute. He also is a past Associate of Strategic Relationships
Solutions Inc.
