Thank you for the questions. Certainly, there is a perception that majority female-owned firms in terms of the entrepreneurs are discouraged from applying for contract opportunities. This is evidenced in the two large-scale national initiatives I mentioned: the 2003 task force and the 2011 task force. That perception is real.
As for the data we have in Canada, we have very little data, and I think that's an important take-away for this committee as well. This is one of the first studies that looked at the procurement. We are working with PSPC to dig down into the data so we can do a more robust gender lens analysis and control for things such as size, sector, and age of firm, because these are important indicators of a firm's viability. But this perception remains.
In terms of bringing women into the program for standard contracting opportunities, to the best of my knowledge, there's been no reporting on the programs such as the BCIP. This is an early opportunity, because there's been, what, 200 firms, and that's not hard to dig through. We have no such reporting or monitoring of the profile of those firms in programs or in general procurement practices, and they're not being flagged at entry, so it's impossible to monitor them.