Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Patterson, in your presentation, you said it was difficult to get federal government contracts.
As to you, Mr. Hayword, you talked about a
struggle to commercialize that technology, finding the resources to do it.
The federal government website promotes a service that helps SMEs bid for federal requests for proposals.
I would like both witnesses to deal with impacts. It is a known fact that Canada will soon sign a free trade agreement with the European Union. European companies will be allowed to bid on requests for proposals of the Canadian government.
What is it the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises can do to help SMEs compensate the impact of this opportunity that will be awarded to European companies to bid on federal contracts? What will be the impact of this competition between Canadian and European companies on SMEs?