Government Operations committee  What I can say is that in terms of our engagement, we engage right across the country, but of course the size of aboriginal businesses and communities is relative to the demographics across the country. For example, 50%.... We have a huge number of businesses in western Canada, e

Government Operations committee  Yes, I can answer that. In a sense, it's linked to the opportunity. There is a certain amount that goes through PSAB, which is mandatory, so that defines a certain opportunity. I have to say that you're absolutely right: when the policy was first introduced, it became an incenti

Government Operations committee  I can speak a little to that.

Government Operations committee  I'll be very quick. We actually work with INAC and we've tried to coordinate our event planning and activities. Right now, we work with INAC and we target I think about 25 to 30 major events across the country. In addition, my own organization, OSME, sets its own targets to en

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Yes, absolutely. In fact, we have an aboriginal engagement strategy, which is led out of the Pacific office of OSME for the whole country.

Government Operations committee  We can share that with you, absolutely.

Government Operations committee  Yes, we are.

Government Operations committee  Could I add something?

Government Operations committee  In terms of the procurement strategies, of course, that form the base of the procurement action plan, if you can put it that way—they include the consideration of exactly this, so that we can understand what the options are. One of them is to ensure that SMEs have access, but we

Government Operations committee  Given the terminology, I'll answer in English.

Government Operations committee  There are a couple of things. Your question is a very good question. The answer is yes. We do analyze the actual volume of suppliers to see how many suppliers repeat in our business and how many new suppliers come in. Of course, we're very interested in ensuring a diversity of

Government Operations committee  I take your point. The supplier community is always concerned about the speed of procurement, especially for small and medium businesses, but we've had a number of tools in place. We also do pre-facilitated contracts, which are standing offer and supply arrangements that are al