Thank you, Madam Chair.
To start with, I think the other members of the committee should realize that the original wording of this motion would penalize all of the country except Ottawa and Gatineau. What in essence this says is that all government jobs should be divided between Ottawa and Gatineau at the rate of 75-25.
But let me address the amendment that Mr. Warkentin has suggested. The policy of the government talks of 75-25 in terms of jobs, not real estate properties. The reason behind that is that we now have--as a matter of fact, it's in Mr. Nadeau's riding--a huge building. I couldn't tell you how many square feet, but it's huge. It used to be a mega-Zellers centre. It was vacated by Zellers and purchased by the Government of Canada.
I was saying jokingly the other day at committee, when we had the pleasure of having the Minister of Public Works in front of us, that this particular building, although it's huge in square footage, has, I think, something like three or four jobs there.
So the policy was in regard to jobs.
Therefore, I think we need to continue focusing this policy on sharing jobs, not on square footage, because we could end up with cavernous warehouses that do not contribute in any way to the financial or economy development of a region.
I've given the Clerk the text of a proposed amendment to Ms. Thibault's motion which clarifies the meaning of the 75:25 policy. Obviously, Ms. Thibault is not from the National Capital Region and I think that she, in good faith...