Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to elaborate a little on PSAB and some of the issues that I've heard about. I'll go back to some of the barriers to entry for SMEs.
To put things in context, we know that indigenous companies are on the rise and are growing much faster than non-indigenous companies in Canada. In terms of some of the issues that we are hearing about from the SME communities, they say that while they want to bid on the bigger contracts, they're not allowed to bid on them, because for corporate references they need to have a minimum of five years. Even though they could partner with other SMEs and combined they would have that experience, they're not allowed to do that. Now I'm thinking about the indigenous companies, which in particular may not have been in business for a long time but can probably deliver the service.
I'm just trying to think of a way.... How could we ensure that we don't put those barriers in place for SMEs and allow them to bid on the bigger contract values of over $1 million? Are there questions that we could ask them when we do ITQs, RFQs, and RFPs? For instance, can we ask if they're going to have the workforce in place and if they're going to have the financing in place?
I understand the risk that you guys are facing as well. There is a risk factor. I get it. But has there been an analysis done by your departments to see how we can allow SMEs to bid on bigger contract values?