Government Operations committee  Again I'll go back to the example I used about the helicopter procurement. Public Works was the body at that time, I think. There seemed to be more power, more prestige, coming from that body. The fear of going to Indian Affairs is that.... Again, I'm not trying to besmirch them

Government Operations committee  First, I think the indigenous economy is still in its infancy. We have to have some way to let us get into the marketplace. Second, from a business perspective, Gitpo Storms has been at this now for a couple of years; we're a pretty young company. Comments have been made to me.

Government Operations committee  Yes, you know, I—

Government Operations committee  In other circumstances.... I've had some meetings with the deputy minister of Industry Canada, John Knubley, whom I know from the east coast, in ACOA. I think he heads up ACOA now. Others have also told him this. He says they're trying to change it. You have to give the benefit

Government Operations committee  Yes, the combat systems are coming out now for the ships. Lockheed Martin said they are going to do this along with a gazillion companies that are trying to get in and trying to figure out how to do that. Even if you said to those companies that they must partner with an indigeno

Government Operations committee  As an example, we were going to do the integrated computer systems contract for the helicopter. We never had that before, but because we were about to get it, we created a whole technological system to take advantage of it. It can be done.

Government Operations committee  Supplier....

Government Operations committee  It would be beneficial, and it just reinforces what Mr. Willy is saying. It creates accountability. It tells companies that they have to do business with indigenous communities. It opens up opportunities that were never there before. I know you guys have only so much time, but a

Government Operations committee  Can I just say something about that?

Government Operations committee  I'm just going to follow up on what Mr. Willy said. I've been around the block here for quite a while. Obviously my colleagues have been around quite a bit. We've had some pretty interesting interactions with deputy ministers, ministers, chiefs of staff, and there has to be a wil

Government Operations committee  Exactly. It's a verification system.

Government Operations committee  I think it's a safety valve. I think that's what maybe people are looking for too, because again, you don't want this to be willy-nilly. Dealing with Enbridge, as an example, we have an engineering company and construction company that's been registered with Enbridge, so we have

Government Operations committee  There's another benefit that could occur if positive procurements happen. Again, our community dealt with two big issues. One was a gypsum mine that was being built down the road from us. The company came in and said that it was a unionized thing and that we had to be part of tha

Government Operations committee  Really quickly, I'll note that Imperial, at the Strathcona refinery, is going to start doing a lot of work on the indigenous file. After the Kearl project, they decided it was a good model, so now they're going to use that refinery to get a lot of work going for the surrounding i

Government Operations committee  Thank you.