Thank you and good morning to our witnesses.
This is the last hearing that we have in our study right now on heritage, and I would say that it's kind of sectioned out into two pieces. One is looking at how the federal government gets its own house in order, and then how we support the larger heritage movement within Canada.
I have just a couple of questions on the larger heritage piece, and then I would like to get into the federal “house in order” piece.
On supporting the larger heritage conservation movement in Canada, we've heard from organizations such as the National Trust for Canada about the need for two things. Darren touched a bit on the idea of a “do no damage” kind of policy.
I don't know if PSPC is able to speak to whether or not we have something like this now. When we're procuring services, if we're losing spaces or even giving money to organizations, is there a way of making sure that the work that is being funded by the federal government is not going to do damage to heritage?
That's one thing we've heard, and I'm wondering if there is a mechanism in place so that it is one of the lenses that's applied. You may not be the right one, but a lot of the contracts and that kind of thing would go through your department. Are there any mechanisms right now that make sure the federal government, through its procurement policies and actions, is not actually leading to the destruction of heritage in Canada?