Government Operations committee  First of all, it's not very well known at all. I'm not sure whether it has a PR office, because only 5% or 6% of members are even aware that it exists. These are the people who are actually involved in federal government contracts. I think one of the reasons might be that it is n

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Certainly when it comes to federal procurement, I think the issue we've been dealing with for years has been the paperwork associated with it. When I said earlier that if it takes you longer to actually apply for a contract than it takes to fulfill that contract, there's a proble

Government Operations committee  This has been something we've been hearing about quite a bit in the last couple of years in particular, that often we're finding small businesses are being rejected right off the start because they are not able to come in at the lowest cost. But what's not being factored into the

Government Operations committee  I think one of the eternal struggles is to understand what is the correct definition of a small or medium-sized business. At our organization we use 20 to 50 as small, 50 to 500 as medium, and 500 upwards as large. Then we have “under 20” as the micro-enterprise size. I think i

Government Operations committee  I think one of the key things is connecting more with business associations and other organizations that do have that touch with businesses that are going to be interested in procurement-type practices. I know they do some of that outreach already, but I think that's probably the

Government Operations committee  We were actually given the R and D reviews output last week. We will be going back to our membership to find out a little more about their perceptions of what they're recommending. We are concerned, because when you start directing money toward specific companies again, you're

Government Operations committee  Those would have been the ones who are actually doing procurement.

Government Operations committee  Probably not. Having said that, we were advocates of an office like OSME, and I don't want to say they shouldn't exist, that they're not doing good work. I think they are trying. The problem is they are not well known. Perhaps they're not structured the right way, or perhaps bein

Government Operations committee  One possibility, if you want to be independent, is to look at the procurement ombudsman's office.

Government Operations committee  Honestly, I don't know if it would have that much more exposure through Industry than it would through Public Works.

Government Operations committee  Our membership is pretty much a reflection of the business population in Canada. It's every sector of the economy, every region of the country. They primarily get financing through debt financing, absolutely, and it would be everything from the one-person, self-employed consultan

Government Operations committee  It would be the little, more established companies, because generally, when you're starting out, you're not so focused on being part of a public policy organization, and once you become more established you are. Having said that, I'd say probably in any given year about 5% of our

Government Operations committee  Absolutely, or the other way around. They start with us when they're young, as RIM did. RIM was a member of ours up until 1998, when they went public, and they no longer could be a member because we don't represent publicly traded companies; we only represent privately owned Cana

Government Operations committee  Yes, we have had that comment come to us, and not just when it comes to technology but in other areas of procurement as well. We call it bundling. It has been occurring for the last few years, and we have seen it in things like temporary health services and translation services,