Good morning, Minister. Welcome to you and all of your officials. Thank you for taking time to appear before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, as you always do when we ask. We appreciate hearing of the initiatives within the various departments and of the work that's being done.
I want to ask for some more background, Minister, on the build in Canada innovation program. In my riding of Mississauga—Streetsville we have hundreds and hundreds of small businesses. Often when I meet and talk with them, including the Streetsville Business Improvement Association, as an example, one issue that comes up is how to sell to the Government of Canada, how to get their product, service, or whatever, into the tendering process. They have something innovative that they think the government could use to make systems or things more efficient or more effective. Obviously, as their local member of Parliament I try to get them through the necessary hoops to reach that goal.
Could you take a bit of time to talk in a little more detail? In your opening comments, you said, “Through this program our government is kick-starting Canadian businesses by helping them get their innovative products and services from the lab to the marketplace.”
Maybe you could take time to explain a little more about that program and then generally what is being done to help small businesses in particular sell their goods and services to the Government of Canada.