QUESTION PERIOD — Public Services and Procurement
Buy Canadian
November 3, 2026
Government leader, for months, your government has urged federal departments to buy Canadian, yet the Canada Revenue Agency has awarded a nearly $12-million security contract to Universal Protection Service of Canada Corporation, an American-owned company with close ties to the current administration. What makes this decision really troubling is that the bid from Commissionaires, a respected Canadian non-profit with a long history of providing meaningful employment to veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and former Royal Canadian Mounted Police members, was only $80,000 higher.
Senator Moreau, how can Canadians take your government’s “Buy Canadian” message seriously when it chooses an American company in business with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, over a Canadian organization that supports those who have served our country?
Thank you for the question, Senator Martin. Your colleague Senator Hébert asked the same question about a week ago, if I remember correctly.
The fact is that the process to give this contract resulted in the selection of a qualified Canadian supplier headquartered in Mississauga that employs nearly 8,000 Canadians across the country. Building upon that, the Canada Revenue Agency launched a policy direction on prioritizing Canadian suppliers and content in its strategic procurement. It’s a Canadian company.
As far as veterans are concerned, I have been told that the agency has produced other opportunities for veterans to work for the agency.
It is the timing of what is happening. As Remembrance Day approaches, your government still has an opportunity to correct this decision. In just a few minutes, the other place will vote on a Conservative motion to cancel the contract with Universal Protection Service of Canada Corporation and award it to a Canadian company instead.
Will your government support this motion? Yes or no?
We’ll see what the result of the vote on the motion is in the other place. I’m concerned by what is happening here in this very chamber at the moment, so I don’t know what the result of the vote will be.
That being said, again, this contract has been given to a company that employs 8,000 people across Canada.
