Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses, and good morning.
I'm interesting in starting, Madam saint pierre, with some of your statistics. I'm interested and even kind of heartened to see you report that the $4.8 billion worth of goods purchased from SMEs constitutes roughly 49% of the total value of business transacted.
You note that in 2005-06 it was at 43%. I've noted in our research that in 2006 the Minister for Public Works at the time, Senator Fortier, made a public announcement that from then on at least 40% of government procurement would be from SMEs, but you were already purchasing 43%. It strikes me as a little like taking credit for the sun coming up if you announce that you're going to strive to achieve what you're already doing.
I'm wondering what concrete steps Minister Fortier took to try to achieve what he was already achieving or what kinds of memos or directives took place. It seems like setting the bar kind of low to promise to achieve less than you're already achieving. Is there an inconsistency here or what?