Let me start with whether our footprint is adequate.
We're talking about constrained resources within the public sector. We're talking about resource reallocations, budgets being under pressure, so we need to look at doing more with less. We need to look at whether we need to have fully staffed Canadian positions in certain countries in West Africa. I'm not picking on West Africa, but we need to compare that with the possibility of applying more resources in China, India, Brazil, and regional centres like the Emirates and Turkey, as well as other places where we have that bang-for-our-buck opportunity. A centralized, regional approach has been looked at and needs to be looked at further. We can't be everywhere. We have to figure out where to be to get that return on our investment.
When I look at the SME side, looking at partnerships and global value chains, it's about Canadian businesses invested in processing or assembly plants. It's about having partnerships on research and development where we, as SMEs, aren't replicating what others are already doing. We have to be able to use these things to our commercial advantage.
The Trade Commissioner Service is an important sounding board and an important qualifier of partnership opportunities. When you walk into a country where you don't speak the language and where there is a complex regulatory environment, you don't even know where to start. The TCS gives you a starting point. It doesn't make decisions for SMEs, but it gives them the information to help them make their decisions. That's how we make sure that prosperity comes back to regional locations in the country.