Government Operations committee  On the swabs, this was the first batch of swabs from the supplier. We called the supplier, and they will be providing us with new swabs. In the interim, we did have success in sterilizing them, just to provide an additional contingency to the Canadian health care system.

Government Operations committee  The replacement ones are coming at no additional charge to Canada. I don't know the price of the sterilization. We'll come back with a written response.

Health committee  No, I don't think there's anything further. My knowledge of this starts on this in late January and goes on to March.

Government Operations committee  Exactly. They're just competing in the general streams of procurements.

Government Operations committee  In the previous year, in the same kinds of streams, under PSAB, it was about $50 million, and for indigenous suppliers who self-identified, it was $11 million.

Government Operations committee  I'm looking at the statistics from all the fiscal years, and we are seeing a steady increase. It goes back to the fact that they've self-identified, but we're not going back outside of PSAB to review the status. We're hoping to work on that as part of the statistical work that wi

Government Operations committee  That is an excellent question, because I wanted to show the different points on the continuum where procurement comes into it. First and foremost, for any procurement, regardless of PSAB, the first place we stop, after trade obligations, is to look at the modern treaties to see

Government Operations committee  I'm happy to give you some PSPC statistics. It's interesting when we talk about those indigenous suppliers within PSAB versus non-PSAB, because we collect statistics but we don't go back, and they've self-identified as being indigenous. I'll give you an example here. In 2014-15

Government Operations committee  I would say that you have to look at it with a couple of different lenses. We're working very closely with the client departments to review their procurement strategies and to look actively for opportunities where we can bring in the socio-economic objectives of indigenous procur

Government Operations committee  Thank you for having me back. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. Accompanying me today is Carolyne Blain, director general of strategic policy for PSPC's acquisitions program. We will outline the work we do with client departments and indigenous suppliers with respect

Government Operations committee  I think from the PSPC perspective our workforce is a key risk for us. On the one hand, we actually have the bodies we need; we have approximately 1,300 procurement specialists, so I think Lorenzo's report was really looking system-wide—

Government Operations committee  On this, I would add that we have a national suppliers advisory group at PSPC. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is a member of it, and they're active. I'd say what's interesting there.... You asked for actual concrete examples of what we're doing, and I think a c

Government Operations committee  I went to “concrete”—my word—in that, you know, we're looking at how we can “lean” the process. It's like when you buy a car and you end up with an envelope full of paper. I mean, the government has a lot of contracting rules; not just rules, but in practice as well.

Government Operations committee  I alluded earlier to the contract simplification. We have 1,300 standard clauses. We're doing a review to shorten it and to see which ones we actually need, which ones need to be mandatory. I myself have pored over these solicitation agreements to see what isn't needed in there.

Government Operations committee  We're studying this issue in great detail at the moment. Vendor performance is a key issue for government as well as vendors. Vendors approach us as well. Nobody wants to see their supply chain impacted by a negative vendor performance. How we take that into account in future b