Mr. Fortier, you're here really because the restoration of our beloved West Block has turned into a multi-billion dollar fiasco, and this isn't the only project undertaken during your watch where we're still mopping up. There seems to be a pattern of meddling and tampering and allegations of political interference on some of the most major files that you were associated with.
We're here to talk about the West Block fiasco, first of all, but how can you not see the impropriety, or at least the appearance of conflict, when Sauvé pays a well-connected Conservative lobbyist $140,000 and then conveniently runs into Nolin's assistant in a restaurant over lunch, and, shortly after, the contract is amended so profoundly that only Sauvé could win the job?
If we don't connect the dots there, as MPs we're not doing our job, because this has all the appearances of impropriety, and frankly, no one can believe.... And we're left with the results. We have the tangible problem to cope with now because of the way it was handled and--I would say with all due respect--mismanaged, or worse, under your watch.
There's a second thing I'd like to ask about. We had to learn through a labour relations tribunal about the two bureaucrats you fired. You forced Mr. Tipple to allow RBC, your current employer, to get this contract regarding the sale of the buildings, and then you fired these two guys because Tipple saw you talking to Byers and was about to turn you in, or at least report this. All of a sudden, they get fired. The courts have called this a sham and a travesty and have given them millions of dollars in settlement. So frankly, you're costing us a lot of money, Mr. Fortier, even long after your brief tenure as a senator is over.
The third thing I'd like to draw your attention to is today's Ottawa Citizen and this massive front-page story talking all about this huge IT contract, which you steered away from this man--who was probably the front-runner--and steered toward CGI, with whom you had a business relationship. The minister himself, the public works minister, was connected to CGI.
Frankly, your brief tenure as public works minister is just riddled with really inappropriate behaviour, and because you were in the Senate, we couldn't drag you before this committee to ask you these questions. I wonder why the Prime Minister, if he wanted a special representative from Montreal in his cabinet, did not just invite you into his cabinet, the way they invited Stéphane Dion into that cabinet. You don't have to be an MP to be a cabinet minister, but they stuffed you in the Senate where we couldn't get at you. So we do appreciate your being here today, but it's been terribly frustrating, as the oversight committee for the Department of Public Works, to have a public works minister who's hiding behind the red chamber.
So what do you have to say about--