Hon. Clément Gignac: Thank you for being with us, minister. The world is changing, with a great deal of geopolitical tension. You are responsible for procurement for the Government of Canada. How are you integrating the national security aspect to ensure that our country is not dependent on supply chains, and above all to make our telecommunications and military infrastructures less vulnerable to countries that could be hostile to us, should tensions escalate?

Hon. Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P., Minister of Public Services and Procurement: Your question, Senator Gignac, is both sombre and important. It’s true that we have been feeling for some time that humanity isn’t necessarily moving in the right direction, and certain dangers come along with that in terms of using and sharing information amongst countries that share the same values.

My colleague from National Defence, my colleague from Public Safety, the President of the Treasury Board and I have a mandate to work together, including with our partners abroad, to recognize that the longer this goes on, the more important it will be to protect the security of Canadians and our allies in an environment that increasingly demands a collaborative approach. I could go into further detail, but this is the most useful thing I can say for now.

Senator Gignac: Are you willing to draw inspiration from the United States and go so far as to exclude companies doing business in hostile countries from public tenders, since this is the case in the United States, with transport equipment, for example? We know that the Chinese are well versed in facial recognition, for example. Whether we are talking about China or other countries that are hostile to us, would you be prepared to exclude certain countries, as the United States does in its public tenders?

Mr. Duclos: The answer is yes. I’ll have to get back to you on the details of certain countries. Obviously, there are some countries that we already know can’t participate in these procurement processes, but there are others for which this is becoming increasingly obvious.