Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you very much to all the witnesses for your time today.
In a much earlier lifetime I had the pleasure, if you can call it that, as a lawyer, of working on government RFPs, and I have to say it doesn't sound like it's improved a whole lot since those days.
I have many questions. The first one relates, in fact, to the fair and transparent comments that we heard earlier. I do want to first say that the Information Commissioner's report commended PWGSC for improving on their performance last year--so credit where it's due. I would urge you to do what you can to lobby internally for more resources. This is clearly a significant issue, and it's a theme that we hear throughout all of it, that there still remains a significant lack of transparency. Whether that's in the process itself or in obtaining records on the process is a continuing issue.
I want to focus now on the non-competitive part of the procurement process. I notice that this is a three-year average, going from 2005 to 2007. The non-competitive aspect, whether it's government-wide or PWGSC, is 19% to 20%. I want to ask about two aspects of this. One, although that's a three-year average, is that an increase or a decrease, historically?
I think, Monsieur Masse, that would be a question to you.