I spoke earlier about our work on simplifying contracts and setting up our electronic procurement system. This should help small and medium-sized enterprises do business with the government on the procurement side.
During my career, I've had the opportunity to speak with a number of business leaders regarding the procurement system. For most businesses, selling their products to the federal government, or even to provincial or municipal governments, is certainly not the same as selling their products to the private sector or the general public. The rules of the game are quite different.
I tend to tell them that we're working to simplify the procurement system. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the process will become simple. It depends on the area in which we're working. As I said, federal procurement works differently from private sector procurement.