Thank you for your question. If you will permit, I will answer your first two questions at the same time, because I believe they are related.
Even though it isn’t what it should be, the picture for small and medium-sized businesses isn’t as dark as you think it is, even though, as I said, it could be better. According to the available information on the participation of small and medium-sized businesses in Government of Canada purchasing, SMEs make up 29 or 28% of the market.
I am pleased to say that a large number of these SMEs deal with PWGSC, but there is a 15-point gap in the SMEs’ contribution to Canada’s GDP. Our long-term objective should be to close this gap. If SMEs contribute 40 to 43% of the GDP and government procurement comes to $20 billion, it would be a laudable and necessary objective to try to give SMEs sufficient tools to close this gap.
The goal is not necessarily to throw out statistics and say that since SMEs contribute 43% of the GDP, let’s give them 43% of federal business. It goes beyond that.
I worked for 20 years in the private sector for a number of small and medium-sized businesses and I can tell you that they are very creative. We need their products and their services. We’re not helping them, we’re helping ourselves. That’s why, when we launched the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises, I repeated during numerous press briefings that when I open offices, my objective is to give them many more opportunities within the federal system.
As for the documentation and contracts they are obliged to read, I need to be responsible and prudent in my reply. I’ll give you an example in a few seconds, but let me assure you, Mr. Proulx, that I share your concern regarding the paperwork burden.
Department lawyers will claim that several contract clauses have been added, over the years, as result of court decisions. One article becomes 10, and 10 articles grow into 100. I experienced it myself this summer, when we launched the process to hire two advisors to give us information on our real estate properties. In the summer of 2005, your colleague and my predecessor, Mr. Brison, sent out a 300-page request for the same services.
It lapsed, because no one could qualify. I examined the document in question, which had at least 50 or 75 pages. We can try, and my officials have been informed that one of my goals was to streamline the paperwork. I appreciate your raising the question, which comes up on a regular basis, in fact.
I have no information regarding the Vimy monument. Perhaps one of my colleagues could—