Video—National Defence is spending millions on military housing without clearly defining its needs

Video Transcript

Our audit of military housing highlights a number of issues that are both long-standing and fairly widespread when it comes to the way programs are administered, including gaps at the fundamental level of program planning.

National Defence is spending millions on military housing without having clearly defined its needs.

We found that the Department has not determined who among members of the armed forces should be receiving housing, what form this housing should take, and where it should be located.

For example, military housing is supposed to be provided in cases where the local housing market is not able to meet the needs of the military.

However, National Defence is not always following this principle.

For instance, military housing is provided in Halifax and Valcartier even though the analysis performed by National Defence showed that the local market could meet members’ needs.

This audit underscores another problem we often see: the misalignment of planning with budgeting and expenditure management.

National Defence has a goal to modernize its housing portfolio and spends approximately one hundred million dollars each year on operations, maintenance, upgrades and new construction.

We found that it does not have adequate plans that set out the work, time, and resources needed to modernize the portfolio.

Without adequate plans, the Canadian Forces Housing Agency, which manages military housing for National Defence, is working under constraints that limit its ability to cost effectively use funds to meet the current and future needs of Canadian Armed Forces members.

For example, in 2015, the Agency received six million dollars in capital funding from National Defence, with only two months to spend it.