Good morning. My name is David MacDonald. I'm a subcontractor working with an SME that is not a member of cabinet and on a contract unrelated to the federal government.
You may wonder why I'm here today. It's simple: the government's bundling of IT professional services contracts will have a direct and major impact on me and all others in my profession. The disappearance of SMEs will decrease competition for our services. At this point, there are a number of SMEs vying for our services. This allows us to secure a daily rate that ensures adequate revenues for our families. With no competition, our rates will be driven down, and this will have a significant impact on my livelihood.
The other concern I have is that large companies usually hire employees rather than subcontractors. This will force modifications to our business models, and those forced to enter an employee relationship with these companies will lose income and have their individualism stifled through corporate policy.
One might wonder how this will result in decreased costs for the federal government. Past RFPs show that large companies, even with their own employees, are more expensive than SMEs with subcontractors. The reason is simple: they have a higher overhead and a larger financial responsibility to their shareholders.
There are approximately 5,000 professionals like me who will be directly affected by the government's decision. If it made business sense and had real economic benefit for Canada, perhaps I would have been more reluctant to appear here today. Unfortunately, this is not the case. This is a bad plan that will have a very negative impact on everyone but a few senior bureaucrats, whose legacy will have been the destruction of the information technology SME sector and the unearned growth of a couple of already large companies.
Thank you.