While speaking at Canada’s biggest military industry conference last month, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said the Department of National Defence has gone consecutive years without leaving money unspent, but defence documents suggest the government was billions of dollars away from being lapse-free.

Sajjan first made the claim to the crowd at CANSEC 2018 on May 30 during his keynote address, in which he also revealed his department’s Defence Investment Plan.

Before claiming the department had gone two years without lapses, he said last year National Defence brought in $3.9 billion in capital investments – $2.3 billion short of its $6.2 billion target. He said the total is “protected” for future spending.

Sajjan repeated the same to reporters following his speech.

“This is the second year in a row that we actually have not lapsed any money,” he said.

Conservative MPs didn’t buy the minister’s take on the funds being protected for future use and agreed that the amount is a lapse.

“It is a lapse, it’s unspent,” Conservative defence critic James Bezan said. “They can try to use as many little words as they want. The minister can try to wordsmith it and make it something that it’s not, but he’s got a real credibility problem on this one.”

“I think they’re trying to skirt the issue. I don’t think they want to acknowledge that they are failing in their plan,” Conservative MP and House defence committee member David Yurdiga said.

Figures presented by the defence department in April do not align with Sajjan’s statement.

A presentation by National Defence titled “Strong, Secure, Engaged — A New Finance Perspective,” acknowledged departmental lapses of more than $1.3 billion in 2015-16, and planned lapses of almost $850 million last year.

The same presentation predicted a $2 billion variance in project spending last year. It said this would be 42 per cent industry related and 27 per cent government related. Sajjan told the CANSEC crowd that unspent funds were due to the same percentages for those factors. The April presentation also said spending variance would be 10 per cent efficiency related and 21 per cent risk mitigation.

iPolitics attempted to reach the minister about the figures presented by his department, but the request went unanswered. He has been out of Canada on government business since June 1.

The Liberals were under fire this week for underspending on defence after it was revealed in a CTV News story that Canadian Armed Forces members were ordered to return sleeping bags and other gear because of a “shortfall of equipment.”

This wouldn’t be the first time the defence minister has found his words getting the better of him. Sajjan faced criticism last year after embellishing his role in a 2006 military operative in Afghanistan dubbed “Operation Medusa.” He later apologised for his remarks.