Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
I want to say a huge thank you to Sheila and Sydney for being here to talk about basic income. My colleague asked excellent questions. I think you know I'm very supportive, so I'm going to just say thank you for coming. Your recommendations are very clear.
I also want to say a huge thanks to Patricia Tessier. You gave a great presentation. I'm a huge believer in what you have said. We have to give far more money to our non-profits and co-ops. My colleague Joanne is going to ask a few more questions of you, but I also want to say we have to do far more to protect existing affordable housing stock. We are seized with this right now, and it's something I'm very much working on.
With whatever time I have left, I want to direct my questions to the Council of Canadian Innovators, which provided very biting testimony today. I think you both know I'm a very big supporter of the vast majority of recommendations that you've put forward. I didn't hear my colleagues' testimony this morning, but I know that we very much believe in innovators in our country and we have great confidence in them. We think we have the smartest, brightest innovators, and I agree with you. There's even more we can do to help support them.
The first thing I want to ask about is your procurement. I almost want to blow our whole procurement system up, and part of the reason is that not only do we have excellent innovators but I also think we have a small business economy. Therefore, I would like both our innovators and our small business economy to be able to tap into our procurement.
The thing is that it seems like such a big beast. How do we get started? In terms of the first step or two, what would be your recommendation?