Thank you, Madam Chair.
I wish to thank the witnesses for appearing in front of us this morning. I understand this was done in an urgent manner, so there are some different points I would like to question you on, if you don't mind.
Some years ago this same committee and other committees were faced with very similar, and I'm choosing my words, “attempts” by the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada to bundle deals as far as office equipment and temp services were concerned. In both of these cases we were successful in making sure that everybody understood, including everybody in Public Works, that these attempts were particularly bad for small and medium-sized businesses and for the Canadian economy and were probably excellent for a very few suppliers that would be chosen under, might I say, “dubious” or “questionable” circumstances. In both of these attempts we were successful in making sure this bundling did not happen on a large scale as had been planned.
Mr. Lynt, you are local. You covered the fact that you live on the Quebec side. You are well aware of the problems that I would encounter as a member of Parliament for the riding of Hull—Aylmer, where huge numbers of people employed in the IT sector would be out of jobs. I am pinch-hitting here this morning, but I presume, from reading transcripts from one or two of this committee's past meetings, that most small or medium-sized companies would be excluded from the tendering process because they could not meet certain conditions. Presumably some of these conditions would be something like having business offices in several Canadian cities.
Tell me, do you have offices in cities other than in the national capital region?