Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Yes. One of the key areas as we try to develop the program is to look at where there are areas of representation and how those map onto the types of goods and services we buy and, where there are not, to have that more focused discussion with our partners about how we grow businesses in those areas where we buy commodities, where buying goods and services may actually be catalytic in growing out those business opportunities.

Government Operations committee  Generally speaking, a set-aside would be a procurement in which you would limit eligible participants to a defined group. If you were to say indigenous business, you might say that in order to enter, submit a bid and have an eligible bid in this process, you need to be a business that is registered with the Indigenous Services Canada indigenous business directory.

Government Operations committee  I should have had one, but I don't have one on hand. I will say that within our comprehensive claims agreement and under the procurement strategy for indigenous businesses, when procurements are for the benefit of an indigenous community, there are many examples of set-asides. They've set aside that opportunity for only indigenous businesses.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Right now, we would probably be at about half a dozen different systems, but with the full implementation of the electronic procurement solution, we will be moving to one system. One of the things we are doing in parallel is looking at our data analytics as a whole and being able to remove the data from these systems, put them in the warehouse, and then use one data analytic tool to be able to analyze all of the data coming from the different systems.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Mr.—

Government Operations committee  Again, when we've talked to the business representative communities for the indigenous businesses, such as the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association, the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, and the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers, they've indicated that 5% should be a floor and that there is much more potential out there in the indigenous business community to supply more than 5%.

Government Operations committee  Internally, I'd say we look to the largest categories, which would be in the area of construction—so, subcontracting to construction—as well as in the information technologies, from supplying technologies such as hardware and software to even consulting within the IT domain. Beyond that, we do a number of contracts for goods that are not manufactured in Canada.

Government Operations committee  I would have to say that when it comes to businesses owned by persons with disabilities, this is actually a challenge economy-wide for Canada. When we look at the general number of businesses owned by persons with disabilities, we see that it's very low relative to the percentage of the population.

Government Operations committee  Thanks for the question. I think we're waiting for the end of this reporting cycle to have clarity on who is the best, but from more anecdotal notes, recently Health Canada has had very strong results in terms of their indigenous procurement. I believe what I heard was that they're in the teens in terms of their percentage of procurement from indigenous businesses.

Government Operations committee  In terms of the evaluation criteria and the actual requirements, those are elements of the procurement package that are developed through the departments to define what their needs are. They define what they're putting priorities on in terms of the selection. One thing we realized, having identified this, is that we need to do a higher level of due diligence with a lens that looks at how fair these are and some of the potential pitfalls, and then provide more guidance to departments on those aspects.

Government Operations committee  Internally to PSPC, we have been around 5%. It varies from year to year in terms of what we procure on behalf of ourselves. Overall, for the government as a whole, it's a little bit less. I'd have to get back to you with a precise number. Part of it is that procurement, when we're serving the overall government, uses a number of different systems.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I would say that addressing the legal impediment within the Indian Act to pledge on-reserve assets to secure bonds is a very—

Government Operations committee  Again, Mr. Chair, we're working with Indigenous Services Canada, which is a lead in terms of the programming of potential solutions and workarounds to address this problem, in partnership with indigenous organizations such as the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association.

Government Operations committee  One of the key barriers that we've heard repeatedly are requirements for bonding. Businesses that are located on reserve have a barrier, in law, to pledging their property to access capital to bond.