Government Operations Committee on Nov. 23rd, 2010

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Okay. So that building contract doubled, the price from what you bid on it--

[Paul Sauvé]

Circumstances around the building contract.... There were hidden issues, oil reservoirs hidden by the church, tunnels that used to carry steel from the city to the buildings--

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

So another example of where.... You know, you've thrown a lot of numbers out here. You've claimed that Public Works is not doing its due diligence. And then it says it discloses all this information to you and you say that's called red tape, so then the price escalates. But then in the contract where everything wasn't disclosed to you, the cost of your contract doubled.

So I'm not sure.... You know, there are so many different places that we need to have a chat with you about. You come here as an authority on construction but then a demonstration of the project that you just recently undertook doubled in price from the time you bid on it to the time that you were complete.

[Paul Sauvé]

Sir, the St. James church project has nothing to do with the Parliament buildings--

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Well, then, why was that part of...? That was part of your--

[Paul Sauvé]

Can you let me answer the question? You have been very arrogant. Let me answer the question, okay?

The crown has gone to extraordinarily lengths to study and decipher each and every element of Parliament and knows each and every square footage of this process. Okay? And even with that, even with those circumstances of study and many, many years of architecture and engineering, we've been thrown a monkey wrench with wrong plans to be able to do our project here.

St. James has nothing to do with that. At St. James, the church, or their body, deliberately hid information relating to contaminated soils, to tunnels, to issues that far, far exceeded what our original mandate was supposed to do. We carried and we finished honourably, and the project is a Canadian success and it is a marvel. I'm very proud, regardless of the bad ink, to have been associated with it, because it is a success--

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Well, we're going to have Public Works officials here--

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Warkentin. Unfortunately, the five minutes is up.

I want to thank both Mr. Sauvé and Mr. Dorval, on behalf of the committee, for coming here. I appreciate that at times it's a little rough, but I appreciate you coming.

On behalf of the committee, may I express our sympathy for the loss of your father.

Yes, Mr. Warkentin.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I notice that on our committee business we have it that we'll move in camera. I make a motion or suggest that we keep it in public.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

I'm fine with that. Is everybody else fine with that?

Thank you again for coming. As the witnesses leave, I'm going to immediately move to committee business.

Colleagues, if you could.... I'll suspend for 30 seconds.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Okay. We have three items, colleagues. The first is the report of the subcommittee. Hopefully this is reasonably uncontroversial.

Can I have a motion to accept the report of the subcommittee? It is moved.

Is there any debate on the report of the subcommittee? Agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Second is Mr. Regan's motion. It's in order and it was received in a timely fashion. Mr. Regan wishes to speak to it.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, I want you to move the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Any debate?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

An amendment to the motion?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

I would propose a friendly amendment, Mr. Chair, that after “November 24, 2010”, we get rid of the rest.

So the motion would be everything except, “that the Committee also empowers the Chair to take whatever actions are necessary, including the issuance of a summons, to ensure that--”

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

You want that deleted?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Deleted, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

So the committee....

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

I will propose a friendly amendment if you want.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

What is the next piece?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

It says “That the Committee orders the Ontario Provincial Police to provide it with the details of all their costs associated with the G8 and G20....” It goes down the next line, the next line, the next line. The final line says “that the Committee orders that this information be provided in both electronic and paper form by 2:00pm on Wednesday November 24, 2010”.

That's where it ends. That's your motion.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Yes.