I'm not going to defend some of the chaos going on, but.... As a government funded entity, Tri Can is likely obligated, in a procurement process, after screening against mandatory requirements (of which i have no idea what they would be), to select the most economical bid. Unless being a locally based was a mandatory criteria, it means that any domestic bids were not as competitive as to what Project offered. That doesn't mean it's the cheapest for us as age groupers, it means it was the most economical deal for Tri Can, whatever that means.
In terms of the gong show, a few points worth pointing out. I suspect a very similar outcome would have ensued regardless of what company won the bid, for a number of reasons. Firstly, in the past, whoever provided the kit was able to space out production, into smaller batches with different due dates, due to multiple world championship events that were spaced out. This is the first ITU World Multisport Festival brining all of these events into one city over 9 days, which drastically condenses the production times that the companies need to deal with. Secondly, with Canada being the host nation, our numbers are substantially larger than they would be for a world championship held outside of north america (You can look at patterns in age group team size over the years, and they always peak whenever the championships are close to home, or where travel costs are more reasonable, versus say when the championships are held in Australia, or Asia). This further exacerbates tight turnaround times for production. Then there's also the specific issue of the kit being a custom design (not a stock base pattern) and each one needing to have the athlete's name printed on the kit, meaning it would be harder to bulk produce (they should have asked for historic data from past championships to get an idea of the basic size distributions to help get a jump start though). These issues would have effected any manufacturer local or foreign... I've never worn Project, and haven't received my kit yet, so I can't speak to the quality of their garments versus some of the Canadian companies. But I would suspect the only difference we might have experienced with a Canadian company would have been to be charged in Canadian dollars (australian dollars are so close to canadian dollars in value, this difference is almost moot) and maybe saving $15 in shipping costs (there's a lot of heterogeneity in item costs for custom designs, so it's impossible to speculate on the difference in item costs as part of the kit.... based on my gut feeling, the tri suit prices are pretty standard and fairly close to what we paid in the past with other kit manufacturers, the jacket cost is very reasonable (less than the item price for team jackets for some of the past worlds I have raced), the shorts/bag are kind of pointless, but similar in costs to track pants I've had to get for past worlds parade kit, and the tech shirt, this is the one that is substantially higher than I've paid in the past for worlds)... The one big win Tri Can could have had with a domestic manufacturer is being able to say they support canadian businesses... The big win for us would have been easier communication with the manufacturers around these issues (which again, would likely have still happened regardless of where the kits came from) being housed in same or similar timezones to us (rather than having to deal with a substantial time difference to Australia since Project hasn't set up a Canadian office yet, as they have committed to doing as part of the deal (I do not work for tri can, I have no knowledge of the deal itself, other than the details that have been publicly communicated in the team updates)).
The other component to the whole thing where I would put some fault on Tri Can was the timing of the Bid process for a kit contract. This should have taken place and wrapped up in the fall/winter... It wasn't until Feb/March that the deal with Project was announced, and then there's the lag for designs to be created, submitted to the ITU for approval, and for approvals to be obtained, and then for the web store to be built and launched. Meaning it wasn't until April that ordering began. Had this been wrapped up by Christmas, ordering could have started in February, which would have given any manufacturer a bit more breathing room to handle this scale of custom production. I mean who knows, maybe an earlier time frame was the intent, but there were a lack of suitable bids, or negotiations took longer, or whatever, but this is the one aspect of the whole thing where I would argue there was fault on Tri Can's part. The other thing that I would lay some blame at was the lack of availability of sample pieces to try on (in the past Tri Can has had samples from their manufacturer at select events and expos where people could attend and tri on to figure out fit), since there are no shops as far as I know in Canada selling their products. Hopefully for the next few years (since the deal is through the 2020 games) they will be able to do this...
I do think people need to chill a bit, many past years kit has been delivered directly to the team hotel at worlds, rather than to us at home over a month in advance. For example with 2013 Worlds in Ottawa, with Champion System kit, and the race two weeks earlier than the first event in Penticton, I would have gotten my kit a week or so ago (other worlds I got my kit closer to the event), because I remember wearing it in a race with 2 weeks of getting the kit and that race is happening tomorrow (06 in cornerbrook it came a week before I flew out to worlds...)... The biggest difference this year is that there's a much larger volume of people expecting their kit on the same timeline, and they're all linked via social media to be catalysts to others complaints and worries... I get that people are excited, because of lack of communications and some pushing back of timelines people are afraid they will miss their deliveries while on vacation, and with the tight window for reorder, people are nervous about the fit. But it is a tri suit, not a cure for cancer... Another week is not the end of the world (it'll still be a month out from the race...).