Government Operations committee  We're seeing more businesses registering into the registry so that they can avail themselves of the procurement possibilities. There's more socialization, and I think companies are seeing that there's potential through federal procurement.

Government Operations committee  I'm not sure I understand—

Government Operations committee  Yes, I know. It's in there, and I'm trying to think of the context in which that was said.

Government Operations committee  It's self-identification, so we're not in there measuring and saying who's Métis and who's not Métis. People self-identify. We look at that, and we accept that as self-identification. We're not asking for status cards and those other things. I mean, we will do an audit and look

Government Operations committee  I don't think we've done an analysis within the PSAB data of businesses, and Mohan can correct me if I'm wrong. We do gender-based analysis on aboriginal businesses at large, and how they compare with the broader workforce and business workforce. We know that the number of wome

Government Operations committee  If those numbers were established when PSAB was established, I think, as part of the modernization review, we need to be asking ourselves and asking businesses the question in and around—

Government Operations committee  I haven't. I don't know whether it's come through in any other.... I don't know whether OSME has heard either. I think some small corporations struggle to get to that percentage, so we encourage joint venturing. That then allows smaller indigenous businesses to partner up.

Government Operations committee  We have certainly all of the reports we've had through the procurement strategy, our annual reports, and we are going to be looking at what OSME has, as well. Certainly we have our databases and the ISED databases that we can look at, but I think a good portion of what we need

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  We do have data in our database. We have data from the research the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business has done as well.

Government Operations committee  We have the ISED database. We can look at procurement and what has happened through the statistics that we collect. We do that data analysis on an ongoing basis, and through that we've noticed that we have challenges in terms of larger companies participating in the procurement s

Government Operations committee  We're still looking at that. I think we'll continue to look at that, and then we will launch into the engagement phase as well. The statistical review is giving us some line of sight of the types of questions we want to put in the survey, so based on the performance through the

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, and good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to provide an overview of the procurement strategy for aboriginal business, which is managed by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. I have provided a short deck that cont