Government Operations committee  Again, I'm not aware of any decisions the president made vis-à-vis his communications of the decisions. That was a decision of the president.

Government Operations committee  I was made aware by Minister Baird that he had received a copy of the contract. I indicated to him that we would do a legal assessment to determine whether delaying the decision would result in the project costs going up. We made a determination that the decision could be delayed

Government Operations committee  You'll have to ask Minister Baird about the release of documentation. I wasn't party to any of those discussions with the minister on the release of the information he put forward.

Government Operations committee  I wasn't aware of when the president received a copy of the contract. We had a discussion on October 9, I believe, about the contract. He indicated that he had received a copy of it. Of course there were issues at that time around the implications of not signing the contribution

Government Operations committee  No. The process was followed in due course. The departments submitted the Treasury Board submission to us. Once they felt that they were ready to seek approval for the contribution agreement, that followed due process. The secretariat, of course, provides advice to Treasury Board

Government Operations committee  The role of the Treasury Board and the Treasury Board Secretariat is not to assess the project. The role of the Treasury Board Secretariat is to assess the contribution agreement that's negotiated between the parties. That means determining if the appropriate due diligence was do

Government Operations committee  Treasury Board Secretariat does not undertake the cost-benefit analysis of the project itself. The role of the Treasury Board is to approve the contribution agreement; our role, therefore, is to assess that agreement.

Government Operations committee  I did not get the contract. The minister got the contract. My understanding is that it was as a result of an agreement between the mayor and the consortium to provide the minister with the contract. We basically assessed the contract, and that was part of the information that wen

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry, I can't answer that question regarding the number of departments involved in the project, but the Department of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities was the lead department for this particular project.

Government Operations committee  I'm not aware of any department expressing concerns. Again, we dealt with the lead department in this case, which was the Department of Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities. It was its minister who submitted the Treasury Board submission to us.

Government Operations committee  Again, I cannot comment on the deliberations of the cabinet committee to Treasury Board. I can say to the honourable member that we do receive a large number of Treasury Board submissions under this particular fund each year, but I can't comment on the deliberations of the board.

Government Operations committee  I can't cite other examples. I don't have that information with me. All I can say is that there are very varied types of projects that come before Treasury Board under this particular fund. They're all quite unique, and the board could in any given instance put specific condition

Government Operations committee  Again, I'm not aware of that project at this point. I don't have that information with me. I should also comment that, as I said, the board can approve with conditions or without conditions, and it can defer. If conditions are put on by the board, often they're not made public.

Government Operations committee  That is in the public domain, and as I already stated, it was in a letter that I sent on October 10 to Mr. Kirkpatrick. As I said, that decision was one where the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities was authorized to enter into the agreement to provide funding u

Government Operations committee  Yes, it was dated October 10, 2006.