Good afternoon.
Ms. Bamford, my first question is for you. I know you're from the manufacturing sector. I worked in that sector for about 11 years. I understand that we have such a disadvantage: Our productivity is not great, and policies don't help to give us a competitive advantage, at least to produce for the local market rather than exporting product overseas.
Now we're on the verge of allowing suppliers to come forward, and you mentioned political interference in selecting suppliers. I've heard some complaints from small and medium-sized companies about how favouritism is given to major ones, especially for sole-source contracts and so forth.
Now we're at another stage, which is awarding licences for manufacturers to produce product. As far as I understand, we should have opened the door for smaller companies everywhere in the country to come forward, and given them the opportunity to produce product that we're going to need for a long time.
Do you believe there is political interference in awarding licences in manufacturing, and specifically for PPE?