Government Operations committee  Again, we would be merely speculating if we added anything to that conversation.

Government Operations committee  I'm sure somebody has the....

Government Operations committee  Our firm has worked with Bobby Watt on the restoration of the front facade of Rideau Hall.

Government Operations committee  I read about it in the paper.

Government Operations committee  No. I've quite relaxed into it.

Government Operations committee  I think Mr. Martin asked a similar kind of question.

Government Operations committee  No. We feel that we are able to come and speak to you openly.

Government Operations committee  We have not been threatened with specifics for...for what you are looking at now. You know, that's a very general question, Mr. Martin. It puts into review our entire lives, as you've asked it.

Government Operations committee  We were not involved in that part of the process.

Government Operations committee  Well, Mr. McKay, I think you're going to have to give me a time signal, because I can talk about this for hours.

Government Operations committee  I see. I will be quite brief. On the issues with the southeast tower, one of the lessons learned was that we were able to do investigations. We were able to understand and to anticipate what we were going to find. In fact, that project came in under budget. We were satisfied that we had learned lessons that were if you do exploratory openings and do testing....

Government Operations committee  Oh, yes.

Government Operations committee  Well, all I can say is that you're quite right that since it was determined in the 1960s to keep the building, there has been a lot of work done that has sometimes not been state of the art, because the state of the art was not as advanced as it is today. One example of that would be using mortar that is too hard for the building stone that surrounds it and therefore causes breakage and spalling of the stone itself.

Government Operations committee  They were just not as scientifically based as they are today.

Government Operations committee  I think one must also acknowledge the post-9/11 landscape and the security concerns that come with that.