Transport committee  We would submit that, first of all, closed bidding doesn't entirely eliminate competition. It drastically reduces it, so it's not completely done away with. In these different models that we've been looking at—the Manitoba situation today, and the Ontario situations you've look

Transport committee  From my understanding, some of the witnesses you've already heard from at this point have presented a lot of that empirical data. I know that there have been studies that were brought forward by Cardus, a think tank organization. From what I've observed of these proceedings, ther

Transport committee  Yes, thank you. I'm glad I'm able to speak to that matter. The truth is that Kiewit Infrastructure is not a CLAC contractor in the province of Manitoba. There is no union affiliation between CLAC and Kiewit Infrastructure Manitoba. There's no bargaining certificate in place. Th

Transport committee  With the Manitoba situation specifically, I'll go back to saying that Kiewit is not a CLAC contractor in Manitoba. It is not fair to say that by and large they are a CLAC contractor. They are in specific areas. They have building trades affiliations in other areas. So there's pro

Transport committee  With respect to CLAC's perspective, we would certainly not have an unfair advantage to compete. We are already three steps behind the eight ball, because of how these agreements are put together.

Transport committee  Absolutely.

Transport committee  I would submit, as I've submitted in my brief, that when it's taxpayer dollars that ultimately contribute to or pay for these projects, those same taxpayers ought to have access to work on those projects. The reality, the end result in many of these situations, is that quite fran

Transport committee  We would suggest that as a government you ought to be very concerned about these kinds of processes when federal money is allocated. From the numbers we've looked at, as far as we can tell, with the Red River Floodway expansion project as well as the east side road project, those

Transport committee  That's correct.

Transport committee  For the record, at no point would we ever advocate for the lowest bidder or the lowest cost. Obviously, doing that could impact quality. All of the things you mentioned weigh significantly into the decision-making process within tendering. Other factors to take into account are t

Transport committee  Absolutely.

Transport committee  Thank you. I'd like to speak specifically to project labour agreements. I want it to be on the record. From our perspective, we certainly are not opposed to them. It's quite the opposite. We support them, but we support them in a different context than we've talked about today.

Transport committee  Yes. In the province of Manitoba right now, that provision does not exist with these agreements we've spoken of.

Transport committee  In the province of Alberta, potentially Saskatchewan, but definitely not in Manitoba.

Transport committee  I would submit, similar to what has already been said by Mr. Miller, that we wouldn't be terribly concerned at the end of the day as to how that money was spent, whether it's up front or a reimbursement of receipts after the fact, considering that the allotment has been granted.