New Measures taken to Help Small Businesses

For immediate release

OTTAWA, November 25, 2005 – The Government of Canada today took a big first step to help small and medium businesses (SMEs) compete for government contracts.

Beginning on December 15, suppliers who want to offer professional services to the government — such as consulting, human resources and change management — can register their company information on a database to be considered for government opportunities. This will allow these companies to market their services directly to government without having to align themselves with larger corporations. Businesses across the country that want to provide office supplies to government offices will also have new opportunities to compete on seven Regional Master Standing Offers (RMSOs) as early as late January 2006.

“I have been listening to the concerns of small business and I’m committed to making sure they have continued access to government procurement opportunities, especially in the professional services and office supply sectors,” said the Honourable Scott Brison, Minister of Public Works and Government Services. “These interim measures respond to supplier concerns about mandatory standing offers. We will also be considering other measures over the coming months.”

This could include re-competing certain standing offers and supply arrangements. There could also be further steps to support private sector efforts to form new SME joint ventures, and to eliminate barriers specific to joint ventures.

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) will also provide specific guidance to other government departments on how and when to use existing standing offers and other mandatory purchasing instruments. This will include guidance to suppliers of goods and services without standing offers on how to continue doing business with the government by meeting “exceptions” criteria to the use of now mandatory standing offers.

PWGSC continues to take concrete steps to help suppliers do business with the Government of Canada. For example, the department recently created the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME), eliminated fees to use the government’s electronic tendering system (MERX^TM) and has adopted a plain language initiative to ensure contracts use easy to understand language. There is also a continued use of regional standing offers to give businesses across the country access to procurement opportunities.

To find out more on the interim measures, visit the MERX^TM bidding system in mid-December for the professional services announcement (known as the IPS Marketplace), and again at the end of January for the office supply RMSO re-compete posting. For questions until then you can contact OSME by visiting www.pwgsc.gc.ca/sme or call the toll-free information line at: 1 800 811-1148 .

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For further information, please contact:

Renée David
Press Secretary
Office of Minister Brison
(819) 997-5421

Media Relations
Public Works and Government Services Canada
(819) 956-2315

PWGSC news releases are also available on our Internet site at www.pwgsc.gc.ca/comm/min/text/mediaroom-e.html