Mr. Chair, honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to present today.
I'm Benjamin Bergen, executive director of the Council of Canadian Innovators, or CCI, a national business association that represents more than 130 of Canada's fastest-growing technology companies. Last year alone, our members employed more than 40,000 Canadians and generated more than $6.5 billion for the domestic economy.
I'm joined today by Neil Desai, a senior executive with one of CCI's member companies, Magnet Forensics. Neil is an expert in cybersecurity and public procurement policy and will have much to contribute to today's discussion. For my part, I'll focus my comments on the role that procurement can play in supporting the growth of Canada's homegrown companies.
As your 2018 report on modernizing procurement stated, the Government of Canada is the biggest customer of goods and services in the country, and the procurement system has the opportunity to be a much larger driver of economic prosperity. In the global innovation race, having the Canadian government as a purchaser of goods and services is considered a major validator for domestic companies. It helps them to accelerate future sales with other governments around the world, which in turn enhances Canada’s innovation export potential.
We are all abundantly aware of the issues the federal government has faced with procurement in recent years, especially when it comes to buying technology systems. The Phoenix pay system, the Government of Canada website renewal project, and now the X-ray machines for Canadian embassies, have each become matters of national interest, and for all the wrong reasons. The end result is billions of dollars paid to foreign technology firms that have failed to deliver on what they promised.
Canada's current approach to procurement lacks a strategic economic development lens, which has a direct impact on the economic opportunities for domestic innovators who wish to help their governments defend physical and digital borders. This all has a negative impact on both our prosperity, and more importantly, national sovereignty.
I'd now like to turn it over to Neil Desai for his opening comments.