Thank you for your question.
I will answer in English so that all committee members understand.
Yes, that rationalization of different rules amongst agreements is done through the legal scrubs and through processes at Foreign Affairs and the trade commission. It's also the work of export promotion agencies and export support agencies to help work with businesses on nationalizing those and coming up with the best advantage. I look on it as a glass half full. There are opportunities to search for the best solution and the best set of rules that fit businesses and give more opportunities to businesses.
I would quickly caution about the local buying requirements and rules. We are preparing to fight with the Americans over buy America. By international comparisons, I wouldn't say Canada has a bad reputation, but the data indicates that we are not one of the best performers in making government procurement available. We fall under the OECD average for per cent of government procurement made available under the World Trade Organization government procurement agreement. It took Canadian provinces 20 years—two decades—to sign on to the WTO government procurement agreement. None of this stands us in good stead internationally.
I would point to Saskatchewan, though, as an example of a province that I think is going about this right. Priority Saskatchewan is working with businesses in Saskatchewan to give them business assistance and training, strengthening their ability to bid for contracts so that businesses in Saskatchewan can bid for local contracts and compete against firms from larger jurisdictions that are better resourced.
The way to go about this is not through government regulation but through capacity building and strengthening of businesses to allow them to compete not only at home but also abroad.