The procurement system in the federal public service is complex. There are so many rules. I agree that at times the complexity of trying to compete to get a contract makes it difficult for smaller vendors, which is why I am concerned that the reaction to the findings around ArriveCAN would be to layer on more controls or to make it even slower. That would discourage competition. The whole point of having competitive contracts versus non-competitive contracts is to encourage competition to ensure that the public service gets the best value it can for taxpayer money.
I'm just concerned that there might be a requirement for the rules to be made tighter or stricter, or for another layer to be added, which will limit that competition. I believe the deputy auditor general has said before—and I've said it before in testimony in front of this committee—that the business of government needs to keep moving forward. The rules, however, need to be respected in order to ensure that happens, and that just didn't happen in this case.