Thank you for your question.
In my opinion, in every situation, there is a principle we can use to improve the condition of each building, such as those on McNabs Island.
We can adopt a portfolio planning concept. My colleague Mr. Wright says he has a long-term vision and plans for the long term. That applies to his entire portfolio. Portfolios include more than just buildings.
It's also things like, in budget 2016, the government announced money to go towards rehabilitating the heating and cooling plants that serve many of the buildings in the parliamentary precinct and many others. It's having a plan from a portfolio perspective.
In one neighbourhood, owing to the energy requirements of the buildings, we have to make provision for that kind of thing. In my opinion, in government it is hard to find planning that is spread out over 10, 20 or 30 years. Major building restoration work is usually done for 100 years—as is the case for the parliamentary precinct—, and for many of the buildings in my portfolio, large office buildings, renovations are scheduled every 40 years. That requires a different kind of planning. We can do that.
My colleague Ms. Owens talked about 26 custodians. Every year, we receive nearly $2 billion for services for other custodians. We usually do one project at a time. There is not really an overview for the portfolio as a whole.
Thirteen of the custodians are science-based departments, so if they have special purpose lab space but they're looking at each lab one at a time, it's more difficult to develop an investment strategy on a larger scale. This is why I think Treasury Board is looking at things like the horizontal fixed asset review. Is there a better investment strategy where you can incorporate heritage, accessibility, greening, etc.?
That's a long answer, but that's my thinking about doing things a little differently.