Government Operations committee  That's me. Can I add something for your land claim issue? Since way back, the language was about small business and minority rights, “minority” being aboriginal. The latest language really clarifies things. Procurement rules of the CFTA do not apply to any measure adopted or maintained by a Party with respect to Aboriginal peoples.

Government Operations committee  That's the agreement on internal trade, CFTA. With CETA, my colleagues here have essentially made it very similar, very spelled out. It's expanded, so it's no longer this, “What is in the minority rights?”

Government Operations committee  It's a much better situation in terms of clarity.

Government Operations committee  I would refer you, Mr. Chair, to the case of Avaya back in 2011. We had a complaint from a foreign company as to the scope of that, and that was the issue.

Government Operations committee  That was dealt with in 2011, and it was shut down.

Government Operations committee  I think you have to take it. I don't think it's in our—

Government Operations committee  Well—

Government Operations committee  It's complaint-driven.

Government Operations committee  It's totally complaint-driven, to us. It will have to go through CBSA for the determination of whether there actually was dumping and whether that complaint is valid. They have to prepare a comprehensive complaint. It comes to us, and then we will look for injury. That's the kind of process that happened, for example, in gypsum earlier this year, after the fire.

Government Operations committee  Eric, give it a go on our side.

Government Operations committee  Could I just add something from a quasi-judicial point of view? The word “transparency” more relates to a due process question than to information afterwards. It's to the parties in the contracting dispute. They know there's procurement that is fair and open to all parties, so I think transparency mainly relates more to the question of the fairness of the actual procurement process.

Government Operations committee  Exactly. Well put. In addition, contracts of larger size can be set aside if the contract officer thinks there are at least two small businesses that can do the job, so the discussion is down at the contracting authority, and I don't know how that happens. Furthermore, larger contracts awarded to larger businesses must have small business subcontracting plans.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have prepared remarks, but I will attempt to avoid repetition as I go through, so I will go a bit more slowly. Thank you for this opportunity to appear before the committee today. My name is Peter Burn. I am one of the seven members of the Canadian International Trade Tribunal.