Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for this very important question. I can assure him that in no way, shape or form will this initiative reduce the visibility of the Government of Canada in the regions of our country. We have new approaches to real estate in my department that I believe have the capacity to increase our presence in the communities and regions across Canada.
As for procurement, we will consider regional standing offers and other methodologies of approaches for procurement to ensure that small and medium enterprises across Canada throughout our regions have an opportunity to provide goods and services to the Government of Canada.