Thank you Mr. Chairman. Welcome to our guests.
I would like to address my first question to Mr. Morrison. You alluded to the study undertaken by Pierre Marc Johnson after the collapse of the de la Concorde overpass. It was, in fact, the second collapse, since the du Souvenir overpass had collapsed before that. However, the two situations were different: in the case of the du Souvenir overpass, it was under construction, whereas the de la Concorde overpass had been built in the 1970s.
You spoke about the rules for awarding contracts to engineers. You said that it was advisable to follow the established model. I have a question that does not necessarily relate to a formal examination nor to official rules of attribution. How can you be sure that when you award a $50 million contract, the costs will not go beyond that amount? I know that I will have an opportunity to ask Mr. Atkinson the same question a little later. He said something quite important about the need to include the long-term costs for maintenance and resurfacing in assessing a project.
The public is having a more difficult time understanding how we can announce the construction of an overpass or a highway interchange. There is a well-known case in Montreal. This is not a criticism of the companies involved nor of the engineers; I want that to be very clear. Work began on the Acadie interchange at a cost of some $50 million. The latest construction work cost more than $100 million, and the public can't understand why. There was a call for tenders, but it soon became obvious that a great deal of work was required. The fault does not lie with the contractor. There is something almost akin to a sub-profession besides the engineer and the contractor, and I am referring to the person who is responsible for finding all of the "extras" and negotiating their cost.
How can people who are responsible for guarding the public purse be sure that, once a contract is signed, everything possible will be done to determine the real cost of the work and ensure that the amount will be the same once the dust has settled?