Quebec company wants federal permits to export armoured trucks to Qatar

An armoured vehicle manufacturer in Quebec wants to discuss export permits so it can send its vehicles to Qatar. After flash floods left parts of Canada’s biggest city underwater, an association of Canada’s insurance providers wants Ontario to do more to conserve areas that prevent flooding. And Shoppers Drug Mart wants British Columbia to use its technology platform to expand “mental health and addiction assistance.” 

Those are just some of the insights from the IJF’s roundup of lobbying registrations at the federal level and in every province across Canada. Each week, the IJF publishes data from our four lobbying databases showing who wants laws changed and who is asking for government money. Think of it as your weekly dose of public policy news before it becomes news.

Over the past week, lobbyists made new registrations or updated existing ones 698 times. At the federal level and in British Columbia, where lobbyists must disclose individual communications, there were 127 new reports: 113 federally and 14 in B.C. The most common subject matters were environment, climate and agriculture.

Shannon Nix, the assistant deputy minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada was the most-lobbied public office holder this week. Nix was lobbied by the Canadian Canola Growers Association, the Canadian Cattle Association, the Canola Council of Canada, Chicken Farmers of Canada and the Grain Growers of Canada.

An armoured vehicle manufacturer wants federal permits to export its military trucks to Qatar. Quebec-based Cambli Group registered to lobby Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and Transport Canada about permits to export its vehicles to Qatar, despite the country’s spotty human rights record. Qatar is classified as an authoritarian country by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Despite GAC’s mandate to advance democracy across the world, Canadian military exports to Qatar have massively increased in recent years from $19,000 in 2021 to more than $49 million in 2022 and $73 million in 2023. Last year, it was Canada’s fifth-biggest (non-U.S.) destination for arms exports, by value. Cambli creates BlackWolf vehicles that it markets for a variety of purposes such as policing, military operations, protection of nuclear power plants and private security. Under Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act, the Minister of Foreign Affairs can approve or deny a permit to any Canadian to allow them to export restricted items. The items on the list include firearms, some forms of lumber and military goods or technology. That includes armoured vehicles like Cambli’s. In 2021, Canada's then-minister of national defence, Harjit Sajjan, signed a defence cooperation arrangement with Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah, the deputy prime minister of Qatar. In a release, the government said the deal would support “peace and stability in the Middle East, including by combating terrorism and violent extremism, and through preserving regional prosperity.” At the time the deal was signed, reporting by the Maple showed that Sajjan was briefed before meeting with Qatari leaders to help sell the country Canadian light armoured vehicles. Neither GAC nor Cambli responded to a request for comment.