Thank you.
When we started looking into the issue of procurement at the provincial and municipal levels, the first thing we found out was that there is already a very open system, by and large. Municipalities and provinces often tend to go to where they can get the best deals and the lowest prices. European companies have been significantly involved in a lot of those procurement contracts already.
So we're talking here about making the determination on what we want to subject to obligations in this agreement. We've been engaged in extensive consultations with the provinces, territories, and municipalities about what they're prepared to include under the government procurement obligations. It will certainly be their decision in the end as to what they feel comfortable including. But they are also very interested to know exactly what that will mean if they are captured by the disciplines. How much is that going to limit their flexibility? How much is it going to constrain some of the objectives they might have?
As I mentioned earlier, there are a considerable number of flexibilities built into the system. Certainly nothing in any of the procurement provisions is going to prevent municipalities or provinces from regulating and ensuring that the kinds of policy objectives they want to achieve are maintained.
So we're going through a long process of consultation, and we'll be going in the direction of those procurements only in areas where the authorities are comfortable with the decision.