That's a great question.
I'm a firm believer that buy Canadian should not be done independently of other actions. It has to work in concert with several different strategies if you want to have an industrial strategy. The reality is that, while I'm very much in favour of buy Canadian, it is more of a middle to long-term strategy, especially in terms of outcomes.
There are a lot of firms, suppliers and businesses that are struggling right now. If you don't have those supports right here and now, then they won't be able to benefit from the buy Canadian policy down the line. I can also understand that there's some frustration with public procurement as a vehicle for industrial policy, because it's a bit more passive, especially on the supplier side of things, because you're waiting for suppliers to come and place a bid. Subsequent to that, there is some action, and not every corporation, not every firm and not every supplier has the in-house capacity to participate in bids in the first place.
That's part of what I was recognizing in my opening remarks. We don't actually have that much competition, because the transaction cost, the overhead, is so significant. If you're a firm that's struggling right now, that may not be sufficient in and of its own right now. I recognize that there are other policies out there that may help offset that.
