—what I started.
We noted in Mr. Poole's presentation that he describes the future winner of bids for these billion-dollar contracts as partners. We choose to describe the government as our client. There is a fundamental distinction.
The government as the client presently drives the agenda in contracts it awards. Mr. Poole recognizes that as a “partner” the government will not be able to make all the decisions required to protect the interests of the taxpayer in awarding these monstrous contracts. Instead, it will have to attain the agreement from its “partner”, the winner of the bid.
We think this philosophy is wrong for the federal government. We ask you to remind the PWGSC senior bureaucrats that the will of the people is expressed through Parliament, and that when a parliamentary committee makes a recommendation, one should not ignore it and do exactly the opposite.
Mr. Poole cannot plead ignorance since he was already a witness in front of the public accounts committee, where he clearly stated that PWGSC did not agree with these large IT contracts.
We ask this committee to force this government to fulfill the promise it made to Canadian voters and promote continued direct access to government contracts for small and medium-sized businesses. It should give us the opportunity to increase our share of government contracts rather than eliminate it.
We hope you will ask the government to guarantee that SMEs will be given the ability to bid directly on the $600 million in contracts currently awarded by the government in IT professional services. SMEs have proven their ability to get the job done for their clients in an efficient manner. We have proven our ability to serve Canada well. We have also proven our ability to win these contracts through competitive procurement. Do not allow the government to take away our ability to bid directly for its business.
Thank you.