Government Operations committee  I would say that today most provincial governments will not entertain new office buildings. I would say they will continue to look to the private market for space. That isn't to say they don't have public buildings, but I think in the future you'll see less and less. To give yo

Government Operations committee  The seventies.

Government Operations committee  You certainly sacrifice certain flexibility, but you gain other things. In other words, for 25 years you don't have to worry about renegotiating a lease, and you know how difficult it is to do that. On the other hand, you could build flexibility into the lease. You might have th

Government Operations committee  That's right. It would be wise for government to say on a 25-year lease there are certain uncertainties and we'll make sure we provide that flexibility. By the way, that building...there's a good example, in some ways, of why governments shouldn't build office buildings. That is

Government Operations committee  I would say you have some excellent landlords in Canada today.

Government Operations committee  But on the institutional side, at the level of large office buildings, you have Oxford, Bentall, and Cadillac Fairview. They are good managers because one of the things they do is maintain the value of the asset for their institutions. We rent the downtown Schulich School from C

Government Operations committee  I think it's clear that it's not in the public interest to sell everything from heritage sites to special use, to laboratories, etc. I think where the dividing line occurs is in what I call commodity accommodation, and that is accommodation that you can get on the street in the m

Government Operations committee  Regular office space, because one of the things that we find in industry today is that industry really isn't sure where it's going to be in three, four, or five years. For example, if you take the city of Toronto, we're growing every 10 years at the size of Calgary. So 10 years

Government Operations committee  I think, again, this is a decision that government has to make. It has many more options as to how it uses that money. The private sector is going to use it in the wisest deployment of its capital for its business; government has many other options. It can say, we'll pay down deb

Government Operations committee  I believe the average age of federal buildings is in the order of 38 or 39 years.

Government Operations committee  They would be considered very old, but again, the rate of deterioration is a function of how well they've been maintained. For example, the TD Centre in Toronto, which was built in the late 1950s, is impeccable today, so it's not age per se. There are two issues. One is what I

Government Operations committee  No, my recommendation is, and I would say to most governments, that you have to adopt an asset management plan. You've got to begin to look at the assets you keep and the assets you dispose of. You've got to live up to the ones you're going to keep and you've got to build in a co

Government Operations committee  As I say, I'm not in any way critical of this government or previous ones. It's a pervasive issue. Everyone faces it. And as the Honourable Garth Turner said, buildings don't vote. My comment is it's a practical solution to a political dilemma.

Government Operations committee  The land costs are an insignificant cost of doing business. The major cost is the cost of people. You locate your asset where you can get the best people at the best price. As I indicated before, the real estate cost is maybe 5% of your cost. The land is minuscule. The major deci

Government Operations committee  Again, I don't think this should be argued as a real estate case. It should be argued more on what makes the best business decision. Also, though, I would say one of the things government should take into account in where it builds are some of the policy issues of urban regenerat