Certainly when it comes to federal procurement, I think the issue we've been dealing with for years has been the paperwork associated with it. When I said earlier that if it takes you longer to actually apply for a contract than it takes to fulfill that contract, there's a problem.
I think during the red tape reduction commission hearings there were lots of small business owners who came forward to talk about that. There was even one who brought an actual proposal with him; it was this thick, and he said he had to fill it out every single time he tries to apply for a government contract--and the information is the same every single time. There are ways we can minimize this. A lot of the information is duplicated. Some of it's irrelevant. It's just making sure that everything is in there that has to be in there. There are lots of things that can be done to really simplify the process when it comes to government contracts that we don't think have been properly looked at.
One of the things the red tape reduction commission is looking at right now is this idea of a small business lens, whereby government departments are actually forced to look at new policies and programs and paperwork through the lens of a small business by asking a series of questions. We've seen this work effectively with the Government of British Columbia. It is working within a few government departments already within the federal government, but it's very, very specific.
We think something government-wide, and especially in federal procurement, would be very useful so that people who are developing the policy and developing the programs and developing the proposals understand that when you look at it from the lens of a small business, some of it just doesn't make sense. It needs to be rectified in order to make it simpler and easier for them to also have access to government contracts.
They're not asking for special handouts. They just want fair access to these types of contracts.