Evidence of meeting #118 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was contract.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
Then we have what we call the procurement centres, which is going down to what you're asking about. Our procurement centre representatives, PCRs, and our commercial marketing representatives help small businesses, when they are going for a bid and contracting, to follow the rules and procedures of acquisitions under the the federal acquisition regulations, FAR, for getting contracts. They make sure they understand the rules, regulations, and playing field, and they advise them as professional advisers to go for a bid.
Yes, they do that, very much.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being with us on the telephone today. I'm Kyle Peterson. I'm the member for Newmarket—Aurora, which is also in the Toronto area. I'm happy to be with you today and learning a lot about what your administration does.
I just want to ask some broad contextual questions about the SBA.
The SBA wouldn't be a contracting party in any of these procurements, correct?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
No, we would not.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
The way I see your role is that you obviously provide services to small businesses. Procurement would just be one of the many services. Is that correct?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
That's correct.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Okay, good.
Here in the federal government, we have—I won't call it centralized because it's not quite—a public procurement department, so to speak, that is responsible for a large portion of the federal government procurement and contracting.
Is there anything like that in the U.S. federal government, or would each department have its own contracting and procurement policies and procedures?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
What we have is 24 different agencies that SBA looks at.
We coordinate with their contracting officers in their agencies, and we look to make sure that they're making every effort to meet that 23%. We look at contracts that can go to small businesses. We look at contracts that we can put into our developmental program, the 8(a) program that only those participants can compete and apply for. We look at those procurements that are less than $4 million that are sole-sourced, where they will not have to compete and where we can apply and give them a small business that can do it. We partner in line with them, and the contracting officers in those agencies have to justify to us in writing why they have not chosen to use these small businesses if we present them to them.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
Yes, and let me tell you, you try to explain that to us.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
Yes.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
The 8(a) program, is that only one of the sort of levers that are at the disposal of small businesses to encourage them to participate in federal procurement. Is that correct?
11:50 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
That's true, but it's a key one. It is a huge one, and it's the one that SBA has the most power in.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Right, and that applies to, I think the definition is “small disadvantaged businesses” that are owned or controlled at least 51% by the—
11:55 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
Right, it's small socially disadvantaged or financially disadvantaged businesses.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Kyle Peterson Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
Right. I understand that. That sounds like an effective program.
I think part of the problem here in Canada—why small businesses aren't participating in the procurement process or aren't participating fully as they perhaps could be—is the sense that it's not worth the time to make the application, not worth the return on the investment of the time that needs to be invested. We've even heard some complaints that payment wasn't done in a timely manner and they really weren't in a position to effectively underwrite the federal government, to take part in procurement.
Some of these can be addressed, I think, not necessarily by any policy or programs but just by an awareness and a promotion of what it takes to do business with the federal government. From my understanding of our conversation today, your administration seems to play an important role in that process.
11:55 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
Yes, we have an executive order signed by the previous president that you only have 15 days to pay a small business. That's very strict.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
Our final intervention will be a short one from our resident Detroit Lions fan, Mr. Masse.
You have three minutes, please.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
It's funny, because you need to know what a world of difference.... We're currently financing construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, and we're having to wait for a P3 selection process whereby some international consortium—because they're down to three—will eventually provide community benefits. In the meantime, our entire community is being ripped up for the preparatory work and the construction in an area similar to Delray; it's Sandwich Town in Windsor, Ontario. At any rate, it's quite different from that.
I just wanted to follow up with outcomes at the end of projects for the selection. I know you have a rating system, as you mentioned, the green, yellow, and red traffic light approach. Have there been other studies, or any types of assessments done, to look at the progress of some of the benefits that have come out of the procurement process, and that have contributed to breaking some systemic problems?
11:55 a.m.
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of International Trade, U.S. Small Business Administration
One of the things we are very proud of is what we call our early graduation period. Remember that nine-year program that I said the 8 (a) involved? The young lady asked the question about the $750,000. We have created a situation whereby if they exceed the threshold of net worth, they are early graduates out of our program because they no longer need the government, and that level playing field. A significant number—I don't have the exact percentage—of 8(a) firms are graduated early because they are no longer considered socially or economically disadvantaged because of being in the program and getting contracts and making money and moving their net worth out of the eligibility for continuation. That's one way.
The other way is what you see on the east side of Detroit. As you speak right now when you go down Grinnell, you see that this was once a historically underutilized business zone. As you see now, there are businesses and corner stores and all kinds of stuff going on, and we had to take that off the declaration. That is an economic achievement.
These are the ways we look at that.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you.
Colleagues, I understand there's a willingness for a couple more questions.
Mr. Ayoub and Madame Mendès, do you both have questions? I'm just trying to get a sense of how many more people want to participate.
