Government Operations committee  Give mechanisms for new entrants. At the moment, there are no mechanisms. Bring back things like the unsolicited proposal program. Expand on the building Canada program. These are the ways to encourage new ideas, innovation, and new entrants to the market.

Government Operations committee  Nothing, but part of the problem here is that I think all of us have probably fallen victim to these ticks in boxes. We've been disqualified in a proposal for not exactly repeating a table that was in the RFP.

Government Operations committee  No, but that's happened as well. To us, we shouldn't have to repeat everything that the government gives to us, but all too often we do. This is where 300 of these pages come from. Yes, we will have a kick-off meeting. Yes, we will have a monthly progress meeting. Yes, we will h

Government Operations committee  That's why I left Britain. I'm a political refugee from Margaret Thatcher.

Government Operations committee  I used to work in what was then called the Procurement Executive of the Ministry of Defence, so yes, I know what was the case. I know what is the case. There are an infinite number of ways of getting it wrong, unfortunately. Again, you have to be very careful because the governm

Government Operations committee  There will always be risk to the taxpayer. If you pretend there isn't you're deluding yourselves.

Government Operations committee  Hopefully so.

Government Operations committee  If I told you the truth, I would get my company into trouble. If I told you a lie, I would get myself into trouble. I apologize, I'm just not going to go there on the record.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I apologize, but I will respond in English. My French is good enough for comprehension, and luckily—

Government Operations committee  Some of the time we would like to be fat and happy and not have to compete, of course, but we recognize that's not the reality of the life we live. I've spent enough time in the old Soviet Union to see where lack of competition and government direction end up at the ultimate. I

Government Operations committee  I believe that it is. In the example I noted, the U.S. government is planning to buy three new heavy icebreakers. There are five industry teams that are going to bid on that. They've been told that their proposal—technical, price, qualifications—has to be 200 pages maximum. They

Government Operations committee  It's partly that. It's partly a matter of attitude. I think the more expert you are, the more you can recognize quality quickly.

Government Operations committee  My old friend and yours, Robert Allan.

Government Operations committee  They asked us for ideas. Cost was not a factor. It was, here's our problem, how would you go about dealing with it? We gave them a set of ideas and they picked among the bids. I believe they got three or four people who proposed in response to that, and away we went. The govern

Government Operations committee  I told a Public Works guy a few years ago that they would have refused to accept Alexander the Great as a general or Mozart as a composer. They just didn't have enough years experience under their belt.