That is a point of contention within our office. I'll try to break it down by service, but for indigenous suppliers that have been awarded a contract pursuant to the PSIB, if there's another indigenous supplier that wishes to complain, they cannot complain to our office, because we derive our mandate as a result of the CFTA, the Canadian Free Trade Agreement. Because the PSIB is an exception to the application of the CFTA, we do not have jurisdiction to review complaints from indigenous suppliers for contracts awarded pursuant to the PSIB.
That's also true for the Canadian International Trade Tribunal. Both we and the trade tribunal have flagged this issue.
We also understand, both from testimony and from our own consultations, that there is a desire to have an indigenous-led solution and dispute resolution mechanism, and we also agree with that. However, we think that all suppliers should be put on the same footing by making them eligible to participate in our reviews of complaints.
We can, however, offer dispute resolution services to indigenous suppliers. If an indigenous supplier has an issue under a federal contract, they can in fact seek our ADR services. That is a distinction.
On the first one, I've three times highlighted as a call to action in our annual report that this change is necessary. I think it needs to happen.