Transport committee  In fact it has, under our very eyes. Waterloo has recently had an application for certification. It is a problem that can potentially grow quite a bit more.

Transport committee  Out of the surveyed municipalities—out of the 44—of the total number of taxpayers surveyed, 38% were under closed bidding. If you extrapolate that number to that entire province and assume that the other municipalities are open—the smaller ones that we didn't study—then it's 26%.

Transport committee  It could be. We don't know, because we don't use that—

Transport committee  Yes. That has been updated now. Would you like me to answer?

Transport committee  If Waterloo remains open, as it currently is.... Its case is in front of the OLRB. Without Waterloo, 26% of Ontarian taxpayers—and I think that's about 11% of all Canadians, because Ontario is so populous—are subject to closed bidding. It's the 26% number there. Among all Ontario municipalities, 26% are subject to closed bidding.

Transport committee  It's interesting to note, and I think it should be noted, that various provincial municipal acts prevent monopolies of this sort. There was an attempt in, I think, Essex County—I'm not exactly sure—by one particular trade union that would have disqualified some of their brother or sister unions, with whom they normally work quite closely.

Transport committee  Right. There are a number of other studies. The closed tendering issue also affects school boards in Ontario. This one was a provincial focus on school boards. It also affects major energy producers, and so on. We are going to be looking at that. Those should be released this year.

Transport committee  We are hoping to undertake such a study. What is needed is a counterfactual, of course—and I don't want to get into scholarly debate in this. What's key to note is that there are two things at play here. One is that the City of Hamilton estimate, which was 40%, for instance, is based on comparing the number of bids that it used to receive for a similar project and for other ones.

Transport committee  We've done a review of the municipal budgets at stake in Ontario alone, and our estimates suggest that if the region of Waterloo—we're talking about the whole region—is subject to closed bidding, that will be almost $942 million at stake. I think that is a big problem. That's just in the province of Ontario.

Transport committee  Yes. In fact, our work has done a survey of the various estimates that are out there. Those estimates range, as I said, from 2% to 40%. If you look at the City of Hamilton report, on the estimate of increase on one particular project, the low bid for this project was 83% higher than the city's budget.

Transport committee  Yes, there are a number of papers. The OECD has a number of papers on that.

Transport committee  Yes, I can certainly find those and pass those along to you.

Transport committee  I'll have to go through my files, but I can pass them on.

Transport committee  Again, and I'm sorry if I'm not being clear, but it's not a matter of using P3s or using traditional procurement methods. Our concern as a think tank is to ensure the variety of ways in which Canadian workers choose to organize themselves on the ground in the construction workforce, whether that's in publicly procured projects without P3s or with P3s, so that they are able to bid and to work on projects that their tax dollars pay for.

Transport committee  We are not suggesting the rules for procurement need to be reduced per se, although I'd like to see rules that are efficient and provide the best value for tax dollars. Our concern is that closing tendering to one particular party, or one particular organization, is a recipe for collusion.