Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Fortier, to you and to your team. Thank you for coming this morning.
I have a couple of questions. The first one is about procurement in general. You have stated as your goal--and I think it's a goal Canadians support--getting a grip on the costs and getting the most efficiency possible--the best acquisitions, the best purchases possible for our tax dollars. Canadians work hard for their money, and they want to make sure it's spent as wisely as possible.
My question is around domestic or North American procurement. I appreciate that we do want to get the best value for our dollar and that we are also bound by trade agreements. Can you tell me, within the confines of those two areas, and perhaps other confines, is there any weight given to domestic production? I feel that when we are procuring domestically, we're obviously keeping people employed; we're supporting their families; there are tax dollars that get paid back to the government; there are a lot of spinoff benefits from domestic procurement. Can you tell me if this is a factor within our overall procurement policy?