Sure. I think I previously discussed the security clearance bottleneck that certainly needs to be resolved. I think some of the other things around pushing procurement authority down not one, not two, but several levels have been covered by Mr. Smith and myself.
The other thing that I think is a very big barrier to SMEs is this cycle of Canadian companies leaving Canada. They are not leaving because they have any shortage of technical barriers. As our survey showed, a defence market isn't a market if companies are considering leaving Canada purely for sales and capital reasons and not because of technical or talent barriers. That's a blessing that this country has. In other countries, companies leave because they can't find talent. That never happens in Canada.
Without reforming the procurement pathway and the engagement strategies of SMEs and start-ups, we risk not only capability gaps in national defence but also economic leakage to other markets, and not just allied markets, unfortunately. I would say that at the risk of losing innovators, we have to close some of the knowledge gaps around procurement and security policies. We have to close this tremendous barrier around security clearances. These have to be expedited, so that people have the opportunity to bid on contracts.
We have to make sure that our dual-use innovators are in situations where Canada is not forced to.... In situations such as submarines, for example, we don't have our national strategy, and Canada is going to be buying some kit from foreign suppliers, which is okay. NATO is a market, and we won't make and deliver everything, but we will contribute to it.
However, when we do have to do targeted procurement and use exceptions where necessary, we have to make sure to aggressively license the technical data back to Canada and provide direct supports for domestic innovation, such as freeing up ITBs, which we previously talked about, and making the eligibility criteria a little bit wider so that some of these foreign primes who do have outstanding ITB obligations actually have more of an opportunity to support Canadian innovators. It's not just by trying to find a way to get them into their supply chain, which is the optimal way to do it, but also by providing dollars of hard support.