Government Operations committee  I think we should learn from all of them, study all of them, and find out what the best practices are.

Government Operations committee  I would add that I think we have mechanisms for doing that effectively, and particularly when we talk about engaging women more, because what we already have in some parts of the country are our organizations such as the Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada, in the western

Government Operations committee  There would be a third party certification.

Government Operations committee  I can't answer your question with a yes this or that. I can say we can learn from what other people are doing. Whether those methods would work in Canada is certainly up in the air. Right now, we're struggling with a lack of data that's so basic we don't actually know our startin

Government Operations committee  I think you're touching on the very basic question relating to how a constrained system is always going to operate at a lower level of optimality than an unconstrained system. How do we go about making up for that gap? I think part of it is to identify the areas within diversit

Government Operations committee  You had a two-barrelled question there. At its root, one had to do with financial management and the issue of that interim between delivering the product or service and ultimately getting paid. That's a problem small businesses face with almost any supplier, not just government

Government Operations committee  I think we need to remember that the reason for thinking about this is that small firms create a disproportionate share of jobs in Canada and they are increasingly being involved in innovation and exporting. Yes, it is more burdensome for government to let contracts to a whole

Government Operations committee  One recurring theme is the question of scale. It actually takes us back to the gender question. I forget the exact number—it's in our report—but a really high proportion of small firms are really quite small, fewer than five employees. To be able to repeatedly qualify for procure

Government Operations committee  Just to address a couple of your comments, there's a trade-off to be made. One of the problems we learned about with the U.S. set-asides is there are really three stages. The first stage, I think, is the commitment the U.S. government made and made public with respect to the 23

Government Operations committee  Thank you. That's all I'll need. Number two is the actual creation of the set-aside. Number three, and most important, is how that set-aside is operated. What we found, and indeed what the U.S. Government Accountability Office found, is that it wasn't policed, which touched o

Government Operations committee  No. I think Barbara is covering it very nicely.

Government Operations committee  I think one of the issues we face that pertains to your question is, as Barbara mentioned, data. Collectively, I'm not aware of—and we've worked with our colleagues at PSPC—any data that really talks to the profile of subcontractors. We have these data that Barbara mentioned, whi