Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think it's worth noting at the outset that it very clearly states that there has never been any indication of fraud or overpayment related to the payments Health Canada has made, etc. We accept that.
As a matter of policy, at least from our party, the NDP, we believe first nations organizations, to the greatest extent possible, should be awarded the contracts for the delivery of services to their own population.
Having said that, the Auditor General's comments today were clearly that they therefore concluded that Public Works should not have awarded the contract to any of the bidders in relation to the non-insured health benefits program.
But we hear from Mr. Potter that everything was really—I don't want to put words in his mouth.
It seems there's an uneasiness on the part of the Auditor General that's not necessarily shared by Health Canada on the delivery of this.
To finish the point I was making when I ran out of time last time, in Manitoba, we're very sensitive to the delivery of health services to first nations after the horrific scandal at the Virginia Fontaine treatment centre. Committee members would benefit from knowing that it was a Health Canada official who told first nations that the way to get the contract was to buy him a Jeep Cherokee, then buy his son another Jeep Cherokee, and then give him $50,000. It was the Health Canada official who went to jail, not first nations individuals, who were misled.
I guess I'm still not comfortable with paragraph 13 of the Auditor General's comments today that clearly says, “We concluded that PWGSC should not have awarded the contract to any of the four bidders”.
What was the reasoning at the time it was in fact awarded to First Canadian?