Article content
In a recent op-ed in this paper, I outlined how a distorted procurement process led to a ten-fold increase in costs, from $26 billion to $286 billion, for 15 Canadian Surface Combatant (CSC) ships for the Royal Canadian Navy. There isan obvious follow-up question — where were the red flags that should have alerted the government to these escalating costs? Allow me to suggest three fundamental failings and to recommend solutions.
First, our inability to ask the right question. Last year, the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates requested that the Office of the Parliamentary Budgetary Officer (PBO) undertake a costing analysis to build the CSC. Unfortunately, it was not tasked to report on the costs to both build and to maintain the ships throughout their lifetime. Its report, tabled in Feb. 2021, identified acquisition costs of $77.3 billion but, as it was not requested to do so, made no estimate on the follow-on costs to operate and maintain these ships.