I wanted to make a quick statement on behalf of the government.
The exchange here has been very good. I wanted to thank all of you for taking the time to come to committee, prepare yourselves, and give us such substantive information. I wanted to reaffirm to each of you and to the industries and the hundreds and perhaps thousands of employees you're speaking on behalf of who couldn't be here today that our government and Minister Fortier are absolutely committed to getting the best value for taxpayers' dollars.
We are also listening to repeated Auditor General's reports that have said the federal government can find substantive savings in the way we procure on behalf of Canadian taxpayers.
It's important to put all this within a context and a framework. Working backwards successively through public works ministers, Scott Brison, the previous minister, was a very capable, very smart man who came into the public works department under circumstances we all know about, which arrested his ability to deal with procurement reform because of the circumstances within the department. It was no fault of his.
Prior to that Don Boudria was the public works minister. He was replaced by Mr. Brison after the Boulay affair. And prior to that Alfonso Gagliano was the Minister of Public Works, and we know what he did in the department.