In the beginning, we felt there was positive outcome. The direction that was being considered, as it related to office furniture, did see a significant change from the initial concepts of “The Way Forward”, which initially targeted sole-source procurement within the office furniture category. Our industry advocated open access and open competition.
The challenge has come in the last year of the consultations, where again our industry feels we are really being selectively listened to in areas Public Works decides they want to pay attention to. In a number of other areas where we raise repeated concerns in terms of timelines, when information is going to be published, and the challenge this is going to create for everyone in the industry, large and small, to respond effectively, those have not been listened to, and in the free-standing procurement we see the result, which is the significant reduction in the number of qualified manufacturers.