Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon.
I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss one of the programs within my organization, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises. I am Pablo Sobrino, the associate assistant deputy minister responsible for the acquisitions branch in the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada.
With me is Ms. Shereen Benzvy Miller, the director general, who oversees both the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises and the client engagement sector of the acquisitions branch.
At the outset, I would like to underscore our understanding that small and medium enterprises are a very important aspect of the Canadian economy and an engine of job creation.
Accordingly, in 2005 PWGSC's Office of Small and Medium Enterprises—the OSME—was created to advocate on behalf of SMEs in federal procurement.
Our goal is to provide these enterprises with access to government contract opportunities by reducing procurement barriers, simplifying the contracting process, providing training and education, collaborating to improve procurement policies, and working to ensure the concerns of SMEs are brought forward and heard.
In 2006, the OSME's regional presence was increased through the Federal Accountability Act action plan, which saw the establishment of six offices across the country. Thanks in part to this increase, OSME has assisted many individuals and suppliers throughout reach seminars, trade shows, meetings and a national, toll-free, information service.
In June 2009, officials of Public Works and Government Services appeared before this committee to discuss the subject. The committee subsequently identified five goals, with recommendations, regarding procurement policies and practices involving small and medium enterprises. We thought we'd take the opportunity to go over those.
The key themes based on these goals are raising awareness of the federal marketplace, improving access to federal contracts, breaking down procurement barriers, ensuring fairness, and supporting innovation.
We are committed to promoting fair, open, and transparent access for SMEs to government procurement opportunities, and since our last appearance we've been focusing on how best to meet the goals set out by this committee.
I would like to outline our progress to date in view of the identified key themes and briefly touch on some future directions we're considering.
Let's talk about the first theme, which is raising awareness of the federal marketplace.
We encourage and assist SMEs across Canada to participate in the federal procurement process through our regional offices. The regional offices provide face-to-face assistance to businesses including free one-on-one counseling and procurement information seminars on doing business with the Government of Canada.
We touch on topics such as understanding the procurement process, registering your business, promoting yourself, searching for bid opportunities, and bidding on opportunities. We have also introduced other seminars that focus on specific subjects about which SMEs have expressed an interest.
Our seminars are often offered outside regular business hours, in several languages, and are delivered in person and/or by teleconference and/or seminars over the web. Feedback that has been received from attendees at our seminars indicates a satisfaction rate of approximately 95%.
We also provide a national information service with the toll-free InfoLine. Through this tool, business operators are able to retrieve information on subjects such as how to register as a supplier or how to get on a standing offer.
We also make special efforts to reach out to aboriginal and women-owned businesses, as well as minority-language communities, to provide support and broaden their understanding of the federal marketplace.
OSME has assisted over 140,000 individuals and suppliers since becoming operational. Each year this number grows substantially, and last year we helped over 44,000.
As to improving access to federal contracts, in September 2010 our new procurement website, buyandsell.gc.ca, was launched to provide a one-stop portal for suppliers to access information they need to do business with the Government of Canada in one location.
The website has been well received by businesses. Several industry stakeholders were asked to provide comments about buyandsell.gc.ca, and I'm pleased to say that in September 2010, Corinne Pohlmann, vice-president for national affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, had this to say:
Buyandsell.gc.ca is a big step forward in helping smaller firms get a shot at government procurement. Government procurement can be a challenging proposition for small and medium-sized businesses and this website can help reduce the confusion and increase the opportunities available to entrepreneurs.
Following our opening remarks, we will be pleased to provide a demonstration of the buyandsell.gc.ca website to this committee, and further elaborate on how the site provides the necessary information for Canadian businesses to do business with the Government of Canada.
Regarding breaking down procurement barriers, we believe that breaking down barriers begins with consultation and speaking with suppliers and potential suppliers to learn more about what aspects of the procurement process cause them problems. Part of the important work done by the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises includes ongoing consultations with both suppliers and clients. This provides an important flow of information both to and from these important stakeholders. For example, earlier this year we coordinated several roundtable discussions to provide suppliers with a forum to discuss procurement barriers and potential solutions directly with Minister Ambrose.
As procurement barriers are identified through these and other efforts, we then take steps to address them.
When we are developing national procurement strategies for goods and services, our consultations include representatives of the SME community. This allows concerns to be raised throughout the process. To this end we have consulted over 4,000 suppliers on 14 potential strategies over the past year and a half. For example these have included food and beverage, office equipment, and janitorial services.
In another example, OSME has worked with departments to improve the availability of procurement documents in both official languages.
With respect to the fourth theme, ensuring fairness, PWGSC undertakes many activities. To highlight a few, OSME sensitizes PWGSC procurement staff in formal training activities by outlining the barriers faced by small and medium enterprises and ways to reduce and remove them.
Buyandsell.gc.ca provides greater access to business intelligence and greater transparency to government processes. This site provides information to both sellers and government buyers. It reduces the time needed for SMEs to search a variety of sites, while at the same time providing deeper information sources that will assist in the preparation of bids.
Finally, for the fifth theme—supporting innovation—we've made some significant progress.
To promote economic growth, in Budget 2010 the Government of Canada committed to the creation of the Canadian innovation commercialization program on a pilot basis. Launched in September 2010, this two-year pilot is a competitive procurement program that helps Canadian businesses to commercialize their pre-commercial innovations through tests and evaluations in federal government departments.
This program will be discussed in more detail on October 6.
Overall, OSME has proven to be a successful program with high client satisfaction ratings. We reach out through conferences, trade shows, and industry associations. We are consulting widely on a significantly streamlined approach to procurement of professional services, we are standardizing and simplifying terminology in procurement documents, and we also continue to offer services via the web, the phone, or in person.
Now, Mr. Chair, if you agree, I would ask Ms. Benzvy Miller to lead a short demonstration of the buyandsell.gc.ca website, following which we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
