Government Operations committee  Our commitment is to take that into consideration, but again it's very important to know what our starting point is. We do have an obligation to comply with those trade agreements. If we don't, we'll be challenged.

Government Operations committee  I can start. One of the fundamentals of the way we conduct procurement, one basis that we have to refer to, is the trade agreements. Canada is a signatory to a few trade agreements, one of which is NAFTA and the other one is AIT. When you had an opportunity to have a presentati

Government Operations committee  Yes, there is. I would like to ask Ms. Miller to provide additional details with respect to those activities. I must say that, in terms of structures, the Department of Public Works has an important role to play, but our colleagues in other organizations—and last year, you had a

Government Operations committee  Letters of interest indicate that the government is expecting to have certain requirements and that there are opportunities there. It allows businesses to decide, with respect to the specific product or service, that it might be a good idea to position themselves. In fact, if it

Government Operations committee  A business has a number of options when it believes there has been a glitch in the process. If the purchase is subject to the Free Trade Agreement — such as NAFTA and particularly the Agreement on Internal Trade here in Canada; those are the two that are best known — businesses c

Government Operations committee  Thank you. The answer to that question is yes. There is, in fact, a structure in place. There are a number of avenues open to small and medium enterprises. Of course, we always want to do more. We talked about the role and mandate of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises, w

Government Operations committee  Miss Bourgeois, that is a broad question. In 2005, the government introduced the initiative known as The Way Forward. This was a procurement strategy for the government as a whole, and not only Public Works, even though it is the main federal player in that area. Our goal was to

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, Madame Findlay, I would first like, with your agreement, to make a comment on the release of the report you had in support of what Deputy Gourde said, and then turn to Shereen Miller, director general of OSME, to answer the question related to the role in comparison to

Government Operations committee  Good morning, and thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, we are pleased to be here again today as part of your study of small and medium enterprise access to the federal procurement process. I am Liliane saint pierre, Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Gourde. I will answer your first question on MERX. I will let Mr. Rapier answer your question about the impact on the furniture industry. Yes, companies in America and elsewhere have access to MERX and the opportunities its system provides. We me

Government Operations committee  I'll start, and I think Shereen would like to make a few points. First of all, there are more than 8,000 standing offers that have been issued by Public Works and Government Services. This is quite a large number. One of the objectives is to allow quick access by having firms al

Government Operations committee  Public Works and Government Services provides a procurement service to its departmental clients for goods and services. Consequently, our actions are governed by the requests we receive. I would like to clarify two points. First, we have implemented standing offers that are open

Government Operations committee  Thank you for those comments. Let us share with you the detailed data that led us to the figure of 49%. I mentioned that the percentage was based on the business income generated by Canadian companies. So if you take $12.6 billion, our amount, you have to subtract the portion th

Government Operations committee  When we look at the requirement, of course we do look--with the department in this case--at all the implications and what has to be included as part of the requirements. As example--

Government Operations committee  I cannot comment on that specific requirement because I do not have the details--