Canada's plan to donate refurbished armour to Ukraine is still spinning its wheels

A plan to rebuild and modernize two dozen decommissioned Canadian light armoured vehicles for donation to Ukraine is stuck in bureaucratic limbo more than nine months after the defence department handed the vehicles over to an Ontario company that specializes in restoration, CBC News has learned.

Defence Minister Bill Blair signed off on the transfer last January. He said negotiations between Armatec Survivability in Dorchester, Ont., and the Canadian Commercial Credit Corporation (CCC), an arm of the federal government, are still ongoing.

News of the holdup comes after Canada announced earlier this month that it would send Ukraine almost 100 retired armoured vehicle chassis, which can only be used for spare parts.

Ukraine has been quietly pushing Canada to complete the deal with Armatec. It hopes that U.S. interest in the company's restoration techniques can open up access to thousands of retired American military armoured vehicles.

Blair declined to identify the obstacles that are preventing the deal from going forward, citing the confidentiality of contract talks.

«I am told that it's very much a work in progress, that there are some unresolved issues that need to be addressed, but I have shared with them a sense of urgency,» Blair told CBC News.

Last year, the Department of National Defence (DND) acknowledged it has 195 LAV II Bisons and 149 Coyote armoured reconnaissance vehicles that are in the process of being taken out of service.

Some of the chassis earmarked for spare parts in Ukraine were sourced from of that pool of vehicles, as were the troop carriers now awaiting conversion at Armatec.

Karl Pfister, president and CEO of Armatec, said he couldn't discuss the issues that are holding up the work.

Pfister said the