I'll start. Actually, I used to be one of the better golfers in Canada. Now I'm just a hack, like most others.
Thank you for inviting us back. I'm going to take you through some material that gives a little background on who I am and who Mr. Card is. We'll talk about something I've been championing for some time. It's a concept called “indigenous participation in the procurement process”. I want to make a few comments on the presentation by Mr. Wright, who was before you. It talks about the procurement strategy for aboriginal people and how well it's working, and I disagree with him on that. I'll talk to you about that. Brian's going to talk about procurement services and some suggestions he has for improving the procurement system.
I am Marc LeClair. I've been working in this town for the Métis Nation for nearly 30 years; I'm sort of long in the tooth in that. I also do a lot of work with the Government of Canada. I've won a lot of standing offers with the Government of Canada. I know the procurement system pretty well. I've done procurement systems for companies like Manitoba Hydro. We just finished a procurement process with Enbridge on Line 3. I did the procurement policy for VANOC, the 2010 Olympic committee. We're specialists in the procurement area.
I'll let Brian introduce himself now, before we go on. I don't know how self-deprecating he is, but Brian's been working the procurement process for a long time. He's just written a book, The Inner Circle: How it Works at Public Works. He knows that system better than anyone else. I teamed up with Brian because we were bidding on a bunch of things. I know how difficult it is to work within the procurement process.
Brian, why don't you introduce yourself?