With all respect, isn't that what you are supposed to be doing? I don't mean you personally, but Public Works. We have an Auditor General's office. I actually do question why we would go and add... Maybe you can't answer, and maybe I should be asking why internal procedures are not enough in terms of overall management of a contract; if the contract and the operations have been following the requirements in the contract, is it not possible for Public Works to tell us this? Also, before we run out of time, I really would like to find out the cost of the audit with somebody else.
Our responsibility is to Canadian taxpayers. A lot of our questions will be around whether this contract is in fact the most cost-effective way of doing this. From your description it sounds as though it is, but it's our job to make sure. We want to make sure taxpayer money is spent effectively, but also transparently, and not wasted. I haven't heard that an external audit is actually adding anything, and I really would love to have some idea of what the cost is.