The National
Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) is a $38.3 billion program designed to renew the aging fleets of
the Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Coast Guard. The NSPS will be the biggest
defence program in Canadian history.
To ensure full value
for taxpayer dollars, a “best value” procurement approach has been touted by
the government as the preferred approach to this program. When Irving
Shipbuilding won the combatant package they agreed that they would not only
spend their own resources to upgrade their facilities, but also that they also
committed to national “value propositions.” which included ensuring a
sustainable marine industry.
Best value for Canada
Originally the
goal of the program was to get “most bang for the buck” for the navy while
leveraging as much economic impact as possible and developing a sustainable
marine industry. What the NSPS has become, however, is an action plan for economic investment. Now the raison d'être
is the creation of jobs and ‘brownie points’ for the government.
This is the wrong
reason to build ships.
Building ships for
the wrong reasons has a cost; the cost can be measured in the number of ships
the navy will receive. Canada
There is a reason
that fewer and fewer federal websites or public engagements discuss the number
of ships. Fifteen, the number that was once the cornerstone of the NSPS
competition has been replaced by buzzwords about maximizing Canadian industrial
participation, increased economic development, while the focus has shifted from
developing a war-fighting navy to job creation programs.
The NSPS was
actively designed to maximize benefits and ensure their distribution to the
greatest extent possible. According to the government website “The National Shipbuilding Procurement
Strategy (NSPS) will create jobs and generate significant economic benefits in
shipbuilding and related industries across Canada
In response to criticism
surrounding the program government
spokespersons have argued that their critics have failed to point that “industry analysts have estimated that over
15,000 jobs will be created and over $2 billion will be generated in annual
economic benefits over the next 30 years." Needless to say, this
argument does not address the issue of how many ships the navy will eventually
get, it simply suggests that whatever number of ships are procured, at any
price, it will be worth it in terms of jobs created.
Countries do not
exist to support armed forces. The Royal Canadian Navy exists to support
government policy. It is strange for a conservative party to believe that government
can create employment, rather then nurture the conditions that make for more
employment but government policy appears to be to create jobs. However the RCN and defence spending are an inappropriate way
to achieve this goal
Nations can make
better investments in the economy, investments that will do more for jobs,
taxes, and industry than defence spending. It has been widely demonstrated that military
spending, even though it may have some positive benefits, does not produce
nearly as much of a multiplying effect as other investments, for example in infrastructure or education .
In a memo, which the Chair of the
Standing Committee on National Defence requested, outlining the problematic
benefits of making decisions about defence programs based on industrial
benefits Steve Saideman, who holds the Paterson Chair in International Affairs
at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and is a CDFAI Fellow,
wrote that “if Canada does make decisions
based on “industrial benefits,” I simply recommend understanding that this
means Canada gets less and prepare for it by cutting personnel, bases, and
whatever else that is premised on a larger military. Of course, these cuts may
hurt the Canadian economy (and voters) more than industrial benefits help.”
In other words it
is not just the RCN that suffers
when ships are built for the wrong reasons, it is the entire economy. Canada Canada Canada
What is best value
for the Canadian Surface Combatant?
The National
Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy
Budget caps were
set early and could result in a reduced number of ships or capabilities
THE U.S.
Defence Procurement as Industrial Policy, Steve Saideman | May 6, 2014
http://opencanada.org/features/blogs/roundtable/considering-defence-procurement-as-industrial-policy/
