Government Operations committee  All the contracts we have carried out to date for SNC-Lavalin were obtained further to a call for tenders. There are very few of them, compared to the number of contracts awarded in the past when management was done by Brookfield LePage Johnson Controls. Since SNC-Lavalin has tak

Government Operations committee  It is both. The number of contracts has declined considerably. There are perhaps five times fewer, and the same thing is true with regard to the value, which has declined by at least 60%.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely, that is not a problem. I do not have them with me, but I can provide you with documents and the list of files that we worked on with SNC-Lavalin. You will be able to compare that with the number of contracts we received from the previous manager, Brookfield LePage Joh

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. We do not know the process used by SNC-Lavalin to manage and award contracts, be it to private firms, professionals or whomever. We do not know the process and the mechanisms that govern it. So we do not know whether SNC-Lavalin has to go through MERX. We do know that

Government Operations committee  I believe that there are other companies that manage certain parts of the federal governments' real estate inventory. The part that they manage is, however, very small. These companies have a much smaller demand for our services. Nevertheless, I would be very surprised if the mec

Government Operations committee  Nearly all of the companies and SMEs in the region.

Government Operations committee  Dozens and dozens. Unfortunately, I do not know them all. All small engineering and architectural firms as well as those specialized in construction are experiencing the same problem. Nor do they know those who have had some success. My company had more dealings with the contrac

Government Operations committee  We do not know which process Public Works and Government Services Canada used to award the contract to SNC-Lavalin. What we do know, is that as of 1999, when Public Works launched a call for tenders, the company that obtained a contract from Public Works was, as I said earlier, B

Government Operations committee  The point is to ensure that a maximum number of companies perform the work through SNC-Lavalin. A greater number of companies fosters competitiveness. And of course, if you increase competitiveness, you decrease prices. If there were only two companies offering services in a part

Government Operations committee  You raise an excellent point. There are no reports or assessments of the quality of work performed by professionals since the private sector took over the management of government buildings, whether it be Brookfield Lepage in 1999, or SNC-Lavalin right now. There are no assessmen

Government Operations committee  That is exactly what we have to do. The work and services offered by Ricky are known only to the SNC-Lavalin project managers or directors. This is why we have to contact them regularly to ask them if any work or services are required in our field of expertise. This is how we hav

Government Operations committee  Yes. The company that managed government buildings before 2005 was Brookfield LePage Johnson Controls. Between 1999 and 2005, this company gave us about 200 contracts. However, we only got 10 of those through calls for tenders. The other 190 were obtained by speaking directly wit

Government Operations committee  In fact, all that is required is for government contracts tendered through SNC-Lavalin to be known publicly. This way, professionals could offer their services. This is how the Government of Quebec proceeds. They ask companies to register in the field in which they are specialize

Government Operations committee  It is difficult for me to say that the government is paying too much, because there is a problem of transparency. We do not know the costs, and neither do you. I cannot compare the costs for Public Works Canada to costs that are unknown. As I was saying earlier, we are in the dar

Government Operations committee  No, that does not affect our operations. As I explained a bit earlier, we get a lot of contracts from private companies and other organizations. What we do not obtain with PWGSC, we get with other businesses. As I explained to Mr. Nadeau, I am not here to look for work. I am not