Doug Guzman starts at Defence Investment Agency (DIA), RFP for CPSP released.

As reported by Judy Trinh, who has been working very nicely on the submarine file the last few weeks, the RFP for the Canadian Patrol Submarine projwct has been released, however, we will need to wsit to see ahat exactly is in it.

On top of that Doug Guzman, former Group Head, RBC Wealth Management and Insurance and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs has officially started his role as CEO of the new Defence Investment Agency (DIA).

Guzman will seemingly be spending the first few months of his tenure as CEO advancing the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP), a project the Carney government has deemed the utmost important to get done.

In a bit more surprising news though, the Canadian government reportedly provided both Hanwha and TKMS with a Request for Proposals last week. This RFP went completely unnoticed because apparently it was never publicly released?

This isnt all that shocking when you have downselected suppliers. Typically they will be provided direvtly with the documentation. It is a bit weird given the hype and build with this project that no announcements were made, not even a whisper.

Both companies have until March 2nd to provide responses. If the government rushed through the process we could possibly see a decision made by mid-April. That would align well with the timelines I have seen.

An alternative could be to hold off to CANSEC in May, given how the event usually attracts a big announcement. With everyone already gathered together, the lure of annoucning such a major decision at the largest Defence-related event of the year feels mightily tempting.

If they REALLY wanted to rush, IE to get it done before the end of the Fiscal year, than they would have at least a few weeks to do so, although I am highly skeptical of that coming to pass. That could be the thinking they have though.

Ultimately this will be a test of how quickly the new DIA can handle large-scale projects, and how quickly they can get things through the various stages of procurement. I can't imagine being sattled with a project of this scale off the bat. Absolutely nerve-wracking.

The original RFI, the last document we have available publicly, was fairly open-ended. It allowed a lot of room for suppliers to offer solutions. Despite that allegedly none of the suppliers met the RFI HLMR at the time.

So this RFP is certainly of my interest to read. It should, hopefully, give some additional clarification yo things. I have contacted PSPC about getting s copy, we'll see if they do. I think they will.