Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, this new regime where you have to think before you speak is a blessing. I'm going to turn this question over to Justin Riemer. I think it's a question about what we're hearing on the ground, and he's been most connected to that. I'll maybe just say, overall, that communities are really concerned and really seized of this, and very passionate about finding solutions, particularly solutions that don't involve their workers having to leave that community to go to another community to find work.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good morning to you and to all the honourable members. Today I am joining you from near the Bow River. I am in Calgary, Alberta, which is Treaty 7 territory, traditional land of the Niitsitapi and, of course, part of the Métis homeland. The phase-out of coal-fired power production has had a fairly high impact in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Public Accounts committee  It's likely a combination of the amount of need.... The vulnerability of people's books also made them less likely to be able to get loans elsewhere, because of their financial state. I also think legitimate questions can be asked about the availability of programs in the west and just the quality of the outreach in general.

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I'll take a stab and hope the connection works on this one. There is one thing I want to flag for the committee, which is that we often think about procurement as a comparison for what fairness looks like. The thing with a standard procurement process is that businesses, when they're doing competitive bidding, lose money on the bids that fail, but they recoup it by charging more for bids that succeed.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Essentially, the main program provided funds, and through the non-profits we were able to provide supporting services for businesses. We focused a lot on dealing with the under-represented groups. We reached out to Indigenous Business Development Services, Small Business Services centres and the entrepreneurs with disabilities program, etc.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Honourable Chair and committee members, I accept the criticism on data collection. Bluntly, if we were going to do this all over again, we would have collected more data at the front end and less at the end, right? We would have collected more up front. Our approach was about just being quick and easy for people.

Public Accounts committee  I see. Will it help if I speak slowly?

Public Accounts committee  I'm sorry. Is the question how many CFs there are?

Public Accounts committee  Hicham, do you know the answer to that? I don't know offhand the number of offices.

Public Accounts committee  Hicham can supplement, and it's a really good question, but I'm not aware of any complaints. This certainly wasn't raised with me. On our side of the program, most people want to access the documents electronically and there's a high degree of automation, but in terms of people going into CF offices, I'm not aware there were any issues.

Public Accounts committee  The real issue here is that we have a ton of work to do to grow the number of indigenous-owned businesses in western Canada. Our project approval for indigenous was 2.8%. That's nowhere near the population of indigenous people in western Canada, so in a way that's disappointing, but it's also twice the rate of indigenous-owned businesses at large.

Public Accounts committee  I hope the sound is working now. Is it? Okay. Perfect. First, I should just clarify that the final reports from proponents will be coming in this month. Everything will be in house, I think, by the end of April, so there will be better data. This audit was conducted in the life of the program, so—

Public Accounts committee  There will be better data as we move forward. In addition, we were facing or expecting a much higher level of volume, and indeed we had that. We had 10,000 projects, whereas other agencies were dealing with much smaller volumes. We took an approach—I think we wouldn't do it the same way again—of having a very streamlined application process.

Public Accounts committee  I would just add that there are things, on a practical level.... A good example here is the definition of tourism. It seems obvious that we should be defining “tourism” in the same way, but it's actually stunningly difficult. Is a restaurant on the border of a tourist area a tourism business or not?

Public Accounts committee  Good morning, Honourable Chair and members. Happy spring, everyone. My name is Dylan Jones. I'm joining you from Edmonton, which is Treaty 6 territory within the Métis homelands. I am the president of PacifiCan and the interim president of PrairiesCan. These are the successors to WD, Western Economic Diversification Canada, which delivered the RRRF in the four western provinces.