Thank you, Mr. Miller.
Mr. Blakely, I want to clarify one mistake in your presentation. No one here is suggesting that bidding should move to exclusively lowest price criteria. Everyone here agrees that quality and qualifications are essential parts of the best value calculation. We are not focused on that. The study has not examined that question because there's unanimity, as far as I can tell, that qualitative matters must be taken into consideration in an open competition.
The question we're debating is whether or not certain contractors and their employees should be excluded simply because of their status as union-free workers or employers.
I haven't yet heard a single witness who is prepared to defend the Province of Ontario's decision to impose labour monopolies in the four jurisdictions you've mentioned across Ontario. The closest we've heard to a defence was your own, when you said it's not a big deal because it's only four jurisdictions. Actually, one of them is Toronto; another is Hamilton. We're starting to deal with very large numbers of taxpayers and very big infrastructure projects. If, as these municipalities report, the costs inflate by as much as 40% as a result of these forced labour monopolies, then it is a very big deal.
Are you of the position that the Government of Ontario should continue to impose these labour monopolies in jurisdictions across the province?