Well, whatever. When the assessment was done of the 40 buildings, we pared it down to nine, now that we're considering putting an RFP for sale and for leaseback. When that was done, some of the information with regard to the work that was commissioned deals with the value of those buildings. So this is not a government operating within the confines of secrecy. This is the government doing what you describe, which is getting the best possible value for taxpayers dollars.
What I don't want to get into is a situation where, frankly, you say here, “In addition the committee calls as witnesses officials of the two banks commissioned to negotiate and handle the sale and lease”. They haven't been negotiated to handle the sale and lease. What has been received by the department are the two studies, which were $100,000 each from the two banks, with regard to these 40 buildings that we examined. If the committee calls these folks before the committee and they don't come, we know that some members of this committee will grandstand and say, “There goes the Harper government operating under a veil of secrecy and not being fully open with the Canadian public”. No. What we've done is to send a confidentiality agreement with regard to those two studies because we want to ensure that the assessed values of these properties, for which we are going to enter into a procurement, an RFP.... It's so we can get the best possible buy for taxpayers.
You can't negotiate these things in public. This is basic.
So I ask that you strike the final paragraph. Let's talk about the minister and not about the banks.