Government Operations committee  What is the number?

Government Operations committee  It would probably be the largest single purchaser, if you took the group as a whole in the country.

Government Operations committee  As it was originally proposed, I believe on June 8, the danger was that if the winning bidders were not present or had operations or facilities in this country, this would have an even greater impact.

Government Operations committee  It's not dissimilar. I guess the danger is that if you were to single-source suppliers, number one, you'd tend to gravitate to the companies large enough to be able to fulfill it—

Government Operations committee  The only thing I might add is that we typically look at value as being something that's defined by the customer. It's really up to the customer to decide what value is, or quality. Then it comes down to who's the customer. We have to make sure that when we talk about a customer

Government Operations committee  Exactly. Well, we've looked around, and you do, and it's great. Really, it's wonderful; it's a great example. But because of that, you have to look at the life cycle cost. What is the cost of owning that thing over time? Will it stand up? Will you have to replace it in a couple

Government Operations committee  Yes, we think the key to this is that if you don't limit access--and I think there is some suggestion and discussion now that there is some changing of views there--you keep the doors open to allow small and medium-sized businesses to participate in this very large market of gove

Government Operations committee  No one has said anything as such, but really, throughout this whole process, this is really the first time we've been listened to, after trying so hard. So I guess it really is more of a plea, if anything, that it not stop. But no one has said anything to us otherwise.

Government Operations committee  What we'd like to see—and I don't care what you call it, a committee, a group, or task group—is a group that comes from all the different disciplines across our industry, representative of our industry and at the same time, on the client and government side, that truly represent

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I want to begin by thanking the committee for allowing the Canadian Furniture Task Group the opportunity to express its views. We believe it's an important issue for the government as a whole. My name is David Swire. I'm with Teknion Furniture Systems Limited, a Can