Government Operations Committee on Oct. 4th, 2011

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Okay.

Do some businesses need to register for MERX? What's the difference in terms of businesses that pay for registration and businesses that don't?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

MERX is a business and they offer other services that you can pay for. They also have other opportunities, not just federal opportunities, on that site--for instance, provincial and municipal opportunities as well as some private sector opportunities. There is a different formula for payment for those, and frankly, I'm not familiar enough with them to be more specific. Anything federal is open to anyone.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Do you have any opportunity to influence how MERX is administered? If there are any suggestions for improvement, are those passed along?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Absolutely.

The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises is the contract holder for that contract, and I have to say that Mediagrif, which is the company that owns MERX, has been very cooperative with any changes or ideas we've had to improve the federal opportunities available, to put up notices, and to make things flash and buzz to help draw people's attention to it. They've been really open to that, so any ideas we get that are worthy of consideration.... We have done a ton of work to improve that service to ensure it meets the needs of Canadian suppliers.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Great.

The federal government has another website, I think it's under small business and tourism, called BizPaL. Are you familiar with BizPaL? Is there a pathway from BizPaL to buyandsell.gc.ca? Are the two websites linked?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Not right now. They don't link per se right now. The focus of buyandsell.gc.ca has really been what the Government of Canada buys and how it buys it. If I want to sell, what can I sell, and how can I sell it to the Government of Canada?

In its one year of existence, buyandsell.gc.ca—

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Happy anniversary.

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Thank you. It was a very big deal for us, and we had cake.

It's no small feat to pull something like this together in a year, especially the same year you put together the Canadian innovation commercialization program. We're a small office and we're very proud of it. What we're doing is working with all those partners and with the provinces and others about future growth for the site to link to other things for suppliers so that it's more of a community.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Those sorts of things will be considered moving forward?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Absolutely.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Excellent.

We've talked about the importance of outreach during our assessment this afternoon. The CFIB has also come up this afternoon. Does the CFIB do any outreach to their members on your behalf about your service or your office? Is that something that—

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

That's not exactly what they do. They don't do outreach on our behalf. We work with them so they're aware of our programs, and we often consult with them about issues. For instance, they provide us with this report you recently got, but also other survey results and things they get from their members so we can be aware of the barriers. We're really interested in the barriers that SMEs face in doing business with us. They share that kind of information with us, and we meet with their head of research and Corinne Pohlmann and different members of CFIB to make sure we're up to date on their concerns.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Okay.

My last question, and this may or may not be within your mandate, and I don't want it to scoop the meeting dedicated to the CICP, but generally, could you describe how your office helps to promote Canadian innovation, the use of Canadian technology, and Canadian entrepreneurship?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Wow, that's like a preview of later this week.

[Peter Braid, Conservative, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Consider it practice.

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

It gives me a moment to pause.

The Canadian innovation commercialization program was a natural for our office. We hear many things from suppliers, some of the things you raised today, like it would be nice if the government paid on time--those kinds of things. We heard loud and clear from entrepreneurs across the country who were asking such things as why the government doesn't take an interest in innovation, why we weren't buying things that are pre-commercialized, why we weren't their first buyer. All those questions we were getting from small businesses made it clear to us that one of the mandates we needed to have, because we are in the procurement arm of government, was to think about how to leverage the power of procurement to help innovators, inventors, and creative people in Canada to see their creations become commercialized. The role of our office is to reach out to suppliers and listen to them....

I'm done? Is that what that means?

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Yes. Could you wrap up that thought, please?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

Okay. I can wrap up.

It's totally linked, and I'll make that link clearer on Thursday. How's that?

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Thank you very much.

We're well over time in this round.

The next round is Mathieu Ravignat, I believe, or is it Alexandre? It's whichever you prefer.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

I have one question.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

You can share this time period, if you like.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Earlier, my colleague Mr. Blanchette referred to the visit here by the Procurement Ombudsman. He indicated in his report that the Treasury Board Secretariat had set rules with regard to the awarding of procurement contracts, but that he felt that two-thirds of the contracts awarded by the various departments or organizations did not respect the parameters set by the Treasury Board Secretariat, even though they are mandatory rules. He stated that there were mandatory rules set by Treasury Board, but that the departments basically do whatever they like. That is on page 17 of his report.

[Pablo Sobrino]

Yes, the issue of competition for small and medium contracts is discussed. He conducted a study. I am not aware of the details and the data, but I could send more specific comments to the committee.

I would say that departments have far more tools for most procurement contracts under $25,000. He raised the fact that it is worrisome to see that there is an absence of competition at that level. One of the principles of procurement is that there be competition as it is necessary to obtain better value for money. That element interests us as well. I can come back to you on that with more details.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Very well, thank you.

You talked about the complicated jargon SMEs must deal with and the fact that it is sometimes difficult to know exactly on which door to knock for the contract they would like to obtain or to sell their products.

Setting aside issues of language, jargon and the complexity of the rules, according to you, what are the main obstacles SMEs face when they want to obtain procurement contracts from the federal government?

[Shereen Benzvy Miller]

In our research, we found three problems, that is the criteria problem, that of assessments and that of size. We are reviewing all steps of the system to see at what point we could change things to make life easier for small and medium businesses. The work that the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises does specifically targets those problems. We, for instance, put questions to purchasing agents, to see why during the assessment, they ask the supplier how many years of experience they have. We have to wonder about those questions in order to see why people act the way they do and whether that is necessary. We challenge our colleagues so as to help them incorporate these ideas into their work.