Despite the defence department spending more than $34.8 million on new sleeping bags, the Canadian Army asked late last year that hundreds of soldiers headed to a joint northern exercise in Alaska with the Americans be issued with old, 1960s-vintage bedrolls.

Troops who had used the recently issued General Purpose Sleeping Bag System (GPSBS) late last fall in a preparatory exercise found “several critical issues,” according to an internal briefing note obtained by CBC News.

The “critical issues” discovered by the soldiers “related to lack of warmth with the new GPSBS,” said the briefing note, written on Dec. 5, 2023.

In its statement, DND said it sought feedback from soldiers — but the department did not answer directly when asked what sort of cold weather testing was done before it chose to purchase the sleeping bags.