Government Operations committee  That is the trend.

Government Operations committee  Yes. Of course, we have chosen Internet as the vehicle that is most accessible to everyone. We are currently developing a business portal. This will be a one-stop gateway. Even before building the portal, we already had a presence on the Internet—a very accessible presence. We have connected all the functions that you described by means of links.

Government Operations committee  We will be building it for Public Works and Government Services Canada. At that point, the departments that want to incorporate their own specific procurement projects will be in a position to do so. It will be open to them as well.

Government Operations committee  We are the ones building it. The first step is to develop it, and when the single gateway is in place, people will be able to enter.

Government Operations committee  Those are precisely the obstacles we are currently reviewing. We are working with our partners and looking at all the areas where there have been complaints, because the difficulties they are encountering relate to just about everything—from registration, to obtaining a number allowing you to deal with the federal government, to receiving information about tenders on MERX.

Government Operations committee  For Public Works, as related to total value of contracts given to companies located in Canada, 49% has gone to small and medium enterprises in the recent year; previously it was 46%, and the year before that 43%.

Government Operations committee  Perhaps I could also add that on top of the formal consultations, we work very closely with industry associations as well, so my colleague DGs in the Acquisitions Branch and I spend a lot of time actually with industry associations discussing the strategies and the processes that are going on in Public Works.

Government Operations committee  It is important to remember, first of all, that we have a toll-free line that people can call to get answers that do not deal specifically with competitions. This is a way of helping people to navigate in the system and understand how to properly manage the process. After that, they can be briefed by procurement officers who have led the process, in order to find out why the result was what it was.

Government Operations committee  If I could answer that, Minister Fortier actually was relying on statistics related to the overall buy. To be very specific, the 49% is actually purchases by Public Works, as a common service provider, when you factor out foreign companies. It's the relative amount for total contract value related to--

Government Operations committee  --companies located in Canada. Right. So that is an important distinction.

Government Operations committee  It's a little like comparing apples to oranges. When he made that announcement, actually, I think the overall was less than 37% at the time, so it was actually going to be a stretch to bring it up above 40%, but we have. In a sense, on the 43%, 46%, and 49%, the reason we select that representation of the statistics is that it factors out a lot of other complicating factors when you factor in foreign companies, so over those three years, we were trying to compare like companies located in Canada.

Government Operations committee  Indeed, it would be helpful to give a more fulsome explanation of everything the government is doing for SMEs. I did not mean to insinuate that the OSME is not responsible for other funds, because it is. That is the case for MERX, for example. We are also responsible for MERX. That means there is an additional $7 million there for MERX.

Government Operations committee  I could give you a precise answer to that question, if I can find the figures here in my papers. Our budget is divided into two sections. There is one budget for the six regional offices, the funds for which are provided by Treasury Board. That funding was made available to us as part of the Federal Accountability Action Plan.

Government Operations committee  I'm almost done.

Government Operations committee  Yes, one more second. I just wanted to say that for the systems they have, we have one that matches all of them. Supplier registration, opportunities for procurement, contract history--all of those things we have and are actually hosted by OSME. The last thing I would say is that in terms of measuring their success and our success, one of the things I would like you to keep in mind is that they have had over 50 years to do this; we have had fewer than five.