Mr. Nadeau, I'm looking at the blues from Mr. McKellar's evidence that he gave to the committee on May 1. I understand that at that time there was a discussion about the federal government as a manager for federal government buildings. In his evidence he said that as “a general rule of thumb...a government should budget annually somewhere between 2% and 3% of the capital costs of an asset for annual reinvestment”. He was talking about the whole issue of recapitalization of our real estate holdings when he did that.
He goes on later in his testimony to say, “Now...Public Works, if the question is, have they done a bad a job....I would turn it around and say they've never had the money to do a good job. In other words, I remember not that long ago...” and he goes on.
So my take on this is that Public Works hasn't had the funding to do the job they need to do. I think we just have to look at the Library of Parliament to see what Public Works can do when it's sufficiently funded. They can obviously deliver excellent real estate property management and maintenance. I think that is a prime example right here on the Hill.