As I welcome all of you—colleagues and friends from the Americas—to Toronto for this Third Ministerial Meeting of the Lima Group, I want to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.
I am here today to speak with about the activities that the Competition Bureau has undertaken to combat bid-rigging, and to safeguard the procurement process for both private and public sector construction contracts.
I have done a number of events this year, and one of the common themes has been Canada 150. It is this moment in the calendar, which gives us an opportunity to look back on where we have come from, to take a look at where we are, and think about where we want to go as a country. I had the great honour of accompanying the Prime Minister and others to Vimy for the centennial of that event, which was so formative in Canada’s history and identity. It is occasions such as these which encourage us to reflect and to think about where we are.
So the obvious question is, what does a 60-year-old have to say to a bunch of young entrepreneurs – what does somebody from the public service have to say to a bunch of start-up entrepreneurs? It’s a good question.
Promoting innovation in the Canadian economy has been a major focus of our federal government’s work since they came into office in 2015, and we expect this will continue to be the case for the balance of their term.
A lot has changed in the world of technology and digital platforms. As we look forward to 2019, it’s important to consider what we can do to reinforce and protect our strong democratic institutions.
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It is a great honour to be here at Chatham House. In fact, it brings back wonderful memories. I spent many hours researching and writing my Master’s thesis at the London School of Economics.