Thank you.
Actually, SMEs are awarded 40% of government contracts. The Office of Small and Medium Enterprises of Public Works and Government Services Canada covers 3,000 contracts with small and medium enterprises across the country.
When I was in Vancouver a week ago, I talked to one of our employees who spends half of her time in small communities, specifically to facilitate the awarding of contracts to small and medium-sized companies. That's very important to us. We recognize the Canadian industrial base. We have been focusing our efforts on that for 10 years, and we are starting to see the positive impacts of those efforts. Company representatives are telling us that the process has become easier, and that they know how to navigate.
Moreover, one aspect of our modernization is about making the process even simpler. I think that the idea that those people have to spend entire days completing a form is unacceptable. We would like selling to be very simple for them and purchasing to be just as simple for us. That is part of our procurement modernization.
Thank you for the question.