Thank you for that, Mollie.
In terms of examples, there are a number of different types of contracts that we enter into on behalf of our clients. One that I would draw attention to is a series of supply arrangements. In order to make the procurement process more efficient across government, PSPC, as a common service provider, makes those available and departments use them to be able to contract a little more efficiently and quickly by using some elements that we've done the groundwork for.
As part of those, we work with our supplier community to identify within that community, for example, which suppliers are either indigenous-owned or indigenous-led. Within those instruments, for example, if I'm a client department and I'm interested in using one of those tools to be able to contract, I'm presented with options that will allow me to select indigenous suppliers within that inventory. Moreover, when those suppliers exist and have made themselves known to the Government of Canada, the selection methodologies are structured in such a way that you'll always be presented with an indigenous choice.
On some of our lower-dollar instruments, we're also trialing some additional socio-economic policies that can bring a similar degree of flexibility to help other equity-deserving groups. We're looking at whether that's something we can do in the future more broadly.
With individual contracts—large ones that are publicly tendered where there's a request for proposals—we're also now working very actively with all the client departments that come to us for service to help them strategize on how they can achieve their indigenous 5% component as part of contracting. We have to take into consideration Canada's complications globally using the trade agreements as a guidepost to ensure that Canada meets those obligations. Within that framework, we're able to, for example, lend weight in the bid evaluation process to companies that can offer significant subcontracting or even set aside primary contracting opportunities to suppliers that are indigenous-owned or indigenous-led.