Government Operations committee  Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to appear in front of this committee. Improving government procurement is, in our company's opinion, a real priority for the health of Canada's economy and for the perception of Canada's government by its taxpay

Government Operations committee  Let's take National Defence as an example. They have a very ambitious procurement program which is coming up at the moment, and because they haven't had any major procurements for many years, they don't have enough staff to deal with this. This has been said by DND; it's been sai

Government Operations committee  It's something that we see elsewhere in the world. I mentioned the U.S., Australia, South Africa where we've done proposals recently. They will say that you're limited to 20 pages for your technical proposal. We very rarely see that in Canada. As I said, on our polar icebreaker p

Government Operations committee  Certainly some of the private sector clients we most enjoy working with are the ones who bring us in early, as Mr. Gamble was saying, and treat us as part of an integrated project team. I don't like that terminology but it's sometimes useful. Don't dictate the solution. Tell us

Government Operations committee  My old friend and yours, Robert Allan.

Government Operations committee  They asked us for ideas. Cost was not a factor. It was, here's our problem, how would you go about dealing with it? We gave them a set of ideas and they picked among the bids. I believe they got three or four people who proposed in response to that, and away we went. The govern

Government Operations committee  I told a Public Works guy a few years ago that they would have refused to accept Alexander the Great as a general or Mozart as a composer. They just didn't have enough years experience under their belt.

Government Operations committee  I don't understand it and I wish it could be changed. What the government really needs to work on is figuring out where risk should reside. Not all risk should go to the contractor. Some should stay with the government. That's a key principle.

Government Operations committee  I can't really talk to all that's going on within the government, but there's been a demographic transition. A lot of the older and more experienced people have retired. A number of the other people who have the expertise within the departments, have been promoted, and unfortunat

Government Operations committee  I believe that it is. In the example I noted, the U.S. government is planning to buy three new heavy icebreakers. There are five industry teams that are going to bid on that. They've been told that their proposal—technical, price, qualifications—has to be 200 pages maximum. They

Government Operations committee  It's partly that. It's partly a matter of attitude. I think the more expert you are, the more you can recognize quality quickly.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I apologize, but I will respond in English. My French is good enough for comprehension, and luckily—

Government Operations committee  Some of the time we would like to be fat and happy and not have to compete, of course, but we recognize that's not the reality of the life we live. I've spent enough time in the old Soviet Union to see where lack of competition and government direction end up at the ultimate. I

Government Operations committee  This is one of the points that I made—

Government Operations committee  Give mechanisms for new entrants. At the moment, there are no mechanisms. Bring back things like the unsolicited proposal program. Expand on the building Canada program. These are the ways to encourage new ideas, innovation, and new entrants to the market.