Thank you, Chair.
I only have eight minutes, but I'm going to use the first few seconds to condemn in the strongest possible terms the fact, Minister, that you are only with us here for one hour today. You come to us asking for the approval to spend billions and billions and billions of dollars, and you have only one hour to share with us for us to probe into this book of main estimates that's as thick as a Manhattan phone book. You're the second minister in a row that has stiffed us. The President of Treasury Board just did the same thing. He was booked for a paltry two hours. When he got here he announced, “By the way, I can only be with you for an hour”. And you've done the same thing to us today, Minister. I'm not impressed. I understand you have another commitment, but you have to understand the estimates are part of the parliamentary procedure where you come to us asking for approval for spending, and you owe us more than an hour of your time.
Having said that, I don't mean to be rude, I'm simply venting my disappointment. I come from a jurisdiction where the estimates in the province of Manitoba go on for days, where a minister has to answer questions on a line-by-line basis why he proposes to spend in this way. We're being shortchanged; the people of Canada are being shortchanged by this process.
My questions are specific and they're quite narrow in scope, because time doesn't permit for anything else. One of the finance minister's ways of trying to get out of deficit, about which we're concerned, may be the fire sale of crown assets. Four times Public Works has been before our committee, and so has the Treasury Board, and so has the Minister for Infrastructure. We have asked a number of officials: “What is the list of crown assets that you intend to sell? Are you intending to sell things such as VIA Rail, the CBC, AECL?”. We learned today you are selling AECL. The answer to those questions was “No, no, no. No such list exists. No, no, no, everything is on the table, but nothing is on the table.” Well, AECL must have been on the table during that period of time for you to announce today that you are offloading one of the crown jewels of crown corporations and national assets.
What else is on the table? What else have you been asked to divest by Public Works?