Industry committee  Your point is very well taken. Unfortunately, I'm not the marine expert. I didn't realize that would be a focus of this committee, but we would be happy to note it and to respond to it. You're absolutely right. As we mentioned earlier, predictability allows for better definition

Industry committee  I've changed processes without increasing the cost and the overhead involved in evaluating a new system that has new requirements based on it. It's a generalization, I think it's fair to say, and this is a challenge, to be honest with you. I think we can do that, but I think we h

Industry committee  Oh, I couldn't commit to that, sir.

Industry committee  We're not far enough down the road to know that. We know we need more investment in terms of the analytics. You're absolutely correct there. We need more investment in reaching out to industry and reaching out to small businesses and better communication. I think a comment was ma

Industry committee  The answer is, clearly, we'll have to look at that. One of the obvious ways it could be brought into the procurement process is through a specification that clearly identifies one of the characteristics of the goods or services that you want to buy. If you want to buy something

Industry committee  I wouldn't actually agree with that. I think there are two sides to it. I think part of our challenge is to make sure the process doesn't increase the cost in terms of an evaluation process. The real question would be, does that change in characteristic require an increase in pri

Industry committee  Yes, I can. The one I was just speaking about, Aeryon Scout, has told us that since participating in the BCIP, the company increased from about 25 to 75 employees. They also said they're testing with DND, the sponsoring department. It enabled their business to open new markets f

Industry committee  We think the answer is that you're correct and there is no restriction, but I'd like to double-check and I'd like to bring a clear answer back to this committee.

Industry committee  Thank you for the question. To be honest, the program has grown slowly but surely since it was established in 2005. When we first began, we had a very moderate amount of money. It was $15 million. Last year we had $30 million. This coming year we'll have $40 million. Of course,

Industry committee  Yes, I will. I'll send you a lot of these. It's pertinent information.

Industry committee  Thank you for that. I can certainly answer some of them; I may have to come back with a response on some of the others. In terms of the Build In Canada innovation program, that was begun, as I mentioned, five years ago as a pilot. Essentially, if you think about procurement t

Industry committee  The answer is that we are working with the provinces and territories, and we're doing it in two ways that immediately strike me as relevant. One of them is just for the work we do in my group—the office of small and medium enterprise—where we regularly engage with different pro

Industry committee  I think the answer is that we're looking at that now in the broader sense of green and clean technology, and how procurement could be leveraged to support that initiative. Over the many years, because I'm getting old now.... I was around 20 years ago when there was a very strong

Industry committee  There's a rule. We have a rule set by Treasury Board. I know we pay. We hold payment to the prime for 30 days. That's to make sure in part that they have paid their subs. As you can imagine, we don't get involved in the relationship between the prime and the sub, because that's a

Industry committee  I think you have it.